42 LONDON BIRDS 



found his gas-dried eyes a little more moist than usual 

 as he looked at their white breasts glancing in the 

 sunshine. 



For some years after the visit of the deputation of 

 1869 it was only on rare occasions that shy parties 

 of ten or twelve of the birds found their way up 

 the Thames to London. Now, on almost any windy 

 morning, except during the nesting season, Thomson's 

 winter vision of the 'storm-tossed Orcades' 'infinite 

 wings ! ' may (substituting only the rumbling of West- 

 minster for the music of the breakers) be seen in 

 reality without going further than the bridge which 

 leads from the Mall to Birdcage Walk. 



But, many as are its attractions, the ornamental 

 water has for Sea Gulls one great drawback the want 

 of a quiet sandbank for a nap. Fearless as they are on 

 the wing, they are too highly strung to acquire readily 

 the sangfroid with which our park Wood Pigeons in 

 the country the most unapproachable of birds -jerk 

 their heads and pick up crumbs under the wheels of 

 perambulators, and doze contentedly, stolid and im- 

 movable as Swede turnips in a frost, within a yard or 

 two of crowded paths. It is tiresome for a bird, as 

 much at home gathering slugs behind an inland 

 plough as when fishing for sand-eels and shrimps, to 

 find himself obliged to spend the whole day on the 

 wing or water; and so, rather than give up London, 

 our visitors seem to have made up their minds to 

 satisfy themselves whether a small foot, with only 

 three webbed toes and no claws to speak of, is an in- 



