ST. VALENTINE'S DAY 37 



FEBRUARY 



II 



ST. VALENTINE'S DAY 



OVER the door of the Salvation Army Shelter 

 in Blackfriars Road is a plane, bearing 

 among its branches the remains of a wood- 

 pigeon's nest. Thus can a ray of wildest country 

 life penetrate to this wilderness of squalid houses 

 in the centre of London. To-day it seems as 

 though the old nest is patched with a few new 

 sticks, and certainly both the birds are back, sitting 

 beside it in the sun with an air that speaks plainly 

 of their intention to start housekeeping anew. 



Over Blackfriars Bridge the hundreds of gulls 

 that have lived on the bounty of Londoners through 

 the winter are daily putting on their nuptial 

 plumage. In the winter, they were just grey and 

 white birds of so general a gull type that many 

 called them kitti wakes and suffered no reproof. 

 Then a little black crescent appeared behind the 

 ear, next a little black dot between that and the 

 beak, and now the spots are spreading towards 

 each other, and in some of the birds have flooded 



