9 s



Mr. John Sergeant,



Blackbirds seem oblivious of street traffic ; they sing away over

the hissing electric wire of the trams as if they were in the heart

of the country. And the most surprising circumstance is that

the majority of these birds are not merely travellers or country

cousins come in for the day, they are residents and breed here,

and many of them winter with us.


From the frequency with which some of the birds I have

mentioned visit my garden during the breeding season, I know

that their nests cannot be far away ; and a reverend neighbour of

mine in his large vicarage garden has many a nest, the owners of

which waken me frequently by their burst of song almost before

daylight. A pair of Missel Thrushes spent the whole of the

spring and summer in the neighbourhood, and I could make a

very good guess in whose garden their nest was built.


Within ten minutes’ walk of my house in the gable of a

house that has been standing empty for some time, and within

twenty yards of the street, a pair of white Owls have reared a

brood for two seasons. Every night, just on the stroke of nine,

during the summer, standing on the steps in front of the house,

I could see one of the birds floating up the street and passing

close over my head, when I could discern the bent neck and

head, and large moving eyes, as he scanned every inch of ground

he passed over; he would turn sharply round a cherry tree, fly

between the house and the vicarage, and so disappear. I have

watched this many times ; he always came from the same

direction and at the same time, and invariably turned between

the two houses, and, when I have not been waiting for him, I have

heard his call—I will not call it a screech, as I consider it a libel

on the bird—as he passed. I have often wondered what he found

for his family in the many gardens he passed over each night.

I never once saw him “ stoop,” although I have met him in

other localities, but that was perhaps because he saw I was

watching. One night he happened to be gliding up the street

when a tram was coming down, and I was interested to see

whether its rattle and lights would scare him, but he kept on his

smooth glide and did not deviate from his usual pathway, as if he

had the greatest contempt for modernity in the shape of a noisy

tram.



