London Biras. 9 



About the same time the following year, and in the 

 same place, a Mountain Finch was found, a visitor 

 from the North, uncommon in most parts of England, 

 excepting during unusually severe winters. The 

 bird, a male, was in fine plumage, and, judging by 

 the brightness of its fawn colours and whites, could 

 not have been long in London. A breastbone which 

 felt through the feathers like the back of a knife, told 

 the common tale of starvation. 



A pair of Chaffinches were to be seen more than 

 once in April, a year or two ago, very busy 

 collecting moss for a nest, between Victoria Gate 

 and the fountains ; and two rather dingy little 

 Blue-Tits were about the same time carefully 

 investigating the trees close by, evidently with the 

 same views. Cole-Tits, too, occasionally show them- 

 selves in the Gardens. Both the Cole-Tits and 

 Blue-Tits, the latter in considerable quantities, have 

 been caught in London by Doctor Albert Giinther, 

 who, before the removal of the collections from 

 Bloomsbury, occasionally relieved his severer studies 

 of Natural History by setting traps in the grounds 

 of the British Museum. He has also caught Green- 

 finches and Redpoles. 



House Martens in plenty, and with them Swallows 

 and more rarely Swifts and the little brown Sand 

 Martens, play on the ornamental waters. The House 

 Martens build in several parts of London. There 

 were three nests the marks were still to be seen a 

 year ago in St. James's Street, two of them over 

 Boss's, the gunmaker's shop, two more in Porchester 

 Place, and three on a blank wall in Upper Seymour 

 Street. " Where they most breed and haunt, the air 

 is delicate," and their mud-houses are a compliment to 

 our improved drainage. 



C 



6 



