LONDON BIRDS 41 



The first black Swans which were imported from 

 Australia could not at all understand the complication 

 of the seasons which a change of hemispheres involved ; 

 and at Carshalton, one brood of little ones was hatched 

 when snow was on the ground, unhappily only to sur- 

 vive in a handsome glass case. They have accom- 

 modated themselves to circumstances better now, and 

 some fine broods have been brought up safely in St. 

 James's Park. The Cygnets in the down are very like 

 young white Swans. 



A single Tern, noticed one blustering day a few 

 winters ago, and a Storm Petrel, 'Mother Carey's 

 Chicken,' reported to have been picked up alive in 

 Kensington Gardens in December 1886, introduce the 

 ' Longwings,' the poetical family of the Albatross and 

 Frigate-bird. Unluckily, the Tern was some distance 

 off, and the species could not be identified with perfect 

 certainty; but Gulls of more than one species have 

 during the last few years become regular visitors. The 

 first considerable arrival noticed by the writer was a 

 party who paid a well-timed visit to the Serpentine in 

 1869, when Mr. Sykes's 'Sea-birds Preservation Bill' 

 was under discussion. The birds stayed some time, and 

 were watched with pleasure by hundreds. 



What Campbell wrote of the wildflowers is doubly 

 true of the birds associated with the scenes of child- 

 hood. They can 'wake forgotten affections,' and 

 'waft us to summers' and winters 'of old'; and 

 probably more than one old Londoner may have felt 

 something not unlike a touch of home-sickness, and 



