CHAPTER II 

 LONDON BIRDS (continued) 



' The deep mellow crush of the Wood Pigeon's note 

 Made music that sweetened the calm.' CAMPBELL. 



PERHAPS the most remarkable feature of recent 

 London ornithology has been the increase in the 

 number of Wood Pigeons. As lately as 1868, a 

 rumour that 'the deep mellow crush 01 the Wood 

 Pigeon's note' had been heard in the trees of the 

 old rookery, since cut down, was enough to draw 

 more than one visitor interested in such matters to 

 Kensington Gardens. The birds (it seemed probable, 

 though uncertain, that they were a pair) were very 

 shy, and confined themselves when the gates were 

 open to the tree- tops, where they were more often 

 to be heard than seen. Since then they have, until 

 the last two years, steadily increased, and are often 

 tame enough to take bread from the hand. 



In 1883, so far as could be judged, three or four pairs 

 nested in St. James's Park. In 1893 it was a common 

 thing to see fifty or sixty together, and the whole 

 number of the settlement, leaving out of the count the 

 birds which had taken up their residence in the Green 



