34 LONDON BIRDS 



country round the little village of the Trinobantes, and 

 the miles of brick and sinoke two old Herns looked 

 down upon, who flapped over London from the Essex 

 marshes one day in August last. 



It is told in a curious old book, called Christ's Tears 

 over Jerusalem, published in 1613, that at the time of 

 the Plague of London, ' the vulgar meniality concluded 

 that the sickness was like to encrease because a Hern- 

 shaw sate (for a Avhole afternoon together) on the top 

 of St. Peter's Church in Cornehill.' But, adds the 

 writer, 'this is naught els but cleanly coined lies.' 

 There is a beautiful Heronry not many miles from 

 London, well worth a visit, in Wanstead Park, the 

 property of the City Corporation. 



The ventriloquism of many birds, especially of the 

 Heron and wild fowl tribes, is very strange. In the 

 swampy districts of Finland, one may hear a party of 

 Cranes apparently within easy shot, and with difficulty 

 make them out almost invisible specks in the sky. 

 Another morning, or very likely the same day the 

 projection of the voice seems to be independent of the 

 state of the atmosphere one hears what sounds a very 

 distant cry, and is startled on looking up to see half a 

 dozen great birds streaming along, not a hundred yards 

 overhead. 



The power, which is no doubt responsible for the 

 legends common all over Europe, of spectral packs of 

 hounds hunting the souls of the lost, is by no means 

 confined to the high-flying birds. It is as impossible 

 to tell from its cry where a Corncrake in a hay-field 



