Bird-Life in London. 249 



at the end of Great George-street. This great and 

 very noticeable increase has taken place within the 

 last ten years, and had Mr. Seebohm been writing 

 his " History of British Birds " in this year of 

 grace 1893, instead of in 1884, he would not have 

 had to go to Paris and Berlin for instances of the 

 tameness of wood-pigeons in large cities. And here 

 we may observe that these birds have not only 

 enormously increased in numbers and tameness, 

 but that they seem to be adopting town ways, quite 

 foreign to the usual habits of the species, as we 

 have frequently seen them on the roofs of houses, 

 apparently as much at home as any of the dovecote 

 pigeons; while, oddly enough, the latter, at all 

 events in St. James's Park, have, contrary to their 

 usual habit, taken to perching in trees. 



Blackbirds and thrushes, though by no means so 

 noticeable as the pigeons, are certainly on the 

 increase in the Parks, owing, no doubt, in great 

 measure to the fact that many inclosures planted 

 with shrubs have been made of late years. They 

 are far from uncommon ; indeed, one morning not 

 long since we saw no less than five cock blackbirds 

 engaged in a tussle under the trees near the flower 

 walk in Kensington Gardens. 



Tits of two species the great tit and the blue 

 tit have lately been largely on the increase in 

 Kensington Gardens. And, lastly, though this is 

 only an occasional or, rather, seasonal increase, 

 we must mention the extraordinary visitation of 

 gulls, mostly black-headed gulls, which now takes 



