LONDON BIRDS 17 



The country round London is still a favourite haunt 

 of the last-named bird : 



' The light- winged Dryad of the trees, 

 Singing of summer with full-throated ease.' 



They have been known very lately to breed in 

 Battersea Park, and every now and then one finds 

 his way into the one or other of the more central 

 parks. They are curiously capricious in their choice 

 of localities for settlement. It is a real Irish grievance 

 though no attempt has yet been made to redress it 

 by Act of Parliament that though to all appearance 

 the country in parts, with its green copses and soft 

 climate, is just what should suit them, they are never 

 heard in Ireland. The cock Nightingales usually 

 land in England eight or ten days before the hens. 

 They sing their best when in expectation only of the 

 happiness to follow them, and are said to be valuable as 

 cage singing-birds only if caught as bachelors. It is 

 touching to hear, on the authority of bird-catchers, 

 who know what they are talking about, that a cock 

 caught after he has paired is useless, and will probably 

 mope till he dies. 



A Nightingale in splendid voice gave a few years 

 ago a series of early recitals in Kensington Gardens. 

 In the heat of the day, when there were too many 

 perambulators about, he kept out of sight, ' in shadiest 

 covert hid/ but before breakfast sang without any 

 attempt at concealment, morning after morning, on 

 the same almond-tree, not very far from the Prince 

 Consort's Memorial. 



B 



