4 LONDON BIRDS 



visitors' the Peregrine Falcon, Kestrel, and Sparrow- 

 Hawk. 



Kites were once upon a time protected City scaven- 

 gers, as also were Ravens. The Bohemian traveller 

 Schascheck, who visited England in the fifteenth 

 century, wrote, on his return, that nowhere in the course 

 of his travels had he seen the bird in such numbers as 

 round London Bridge. On the 13th of May 1898, a 

 Kestrel flew slowly over Portrnan Square in the direc- 

 tion of the Highgate Woods, casting a passing glance 

 on the enclosure as it crossed. 



A large Owl a grave and reverend representative 

 of the night fliers was apprehended by the police- 

 constable on duty a year or two ago in the Repository 

 of the Public Record Office, and after inquiry dis- 

 charged with a caution, unfortunately before the species 

 had been determined. Another has since been recorded 

 in the newspapers as having taken up its quarters 

 in a tree in the grounds of Guy's Hospital. In 

 this case, too, the species was unnamed. But both 

 ' tawny ' and ' barn ' owls are fairly common in 

 Kensington Gardens. 



\\ f e hear in these days much of the struggle for 

 existence which is going on everywhere in Nature, and 

 of adaptations in the forms of animals to the conditions 

 under which they have to carry on the fight. There 

 is not a clearer or more beautiful instance of the kind 

 than the wing of a common Brown Owl. 



The bird has to hunt close for its prey in the dark. 

 If it cut the air with the noisy flight of a Partridge 



