London Birds. 1 1 



finds his way into the one or other of the more central 

 parks. They are curiously capricious in their choice 

 of localities for settlement. It is a real Irish grievance 

 though no attempt has yet been made to redress it 

 by Act of Parliament that though to all appearance 

 the country in parts, with its green copses and soft 

 climate, is just what should suit them, they are never 

 heard in Ireland. The cock Nightingales usually 

 land in England eight or ten days before the hens. 

 They sing their best when in expectation only of 

 the happiness to follow them, and are said to be 

 valuable as cage singing-birds only if caught as 

 bachelors. It is touching to hear, on the authority 

 of bird-catchers, who know what they are talking 

 about, that a cock caught after he has paired is 

 useless, and will probably mope till he dies. 



A Nightingale in splendid voice gave a series of 

 early recitals a year or two ago in Kensington Gar- 

 dens. In the heat of the day, when there were too 

 many perambulators about, he kept out of sight, 

 "in shadiest covert hid," but before breakfast sang 

 without any attempt at concealment morning after 

 morning on the same almond tree, not very far from 

 the Prince Consort's Memorial. 



His song, poor fellow, was all the more impas- 

 sioned, because the lady he sang for in all probability 

 existed only in his dreams ; or, if they had really met 

 and engaged themselves in the warm winter among 

 the olive groves of the South, thought herself 

 absolved from the engagement, and free to console 

 herself with a less audacious mate in a quieter 

 home beside some Kentish lane, when she heard her 

 lover could wish her to follow him to shameless 

 London. 



Alphonse Karr, in his "Voyage autour de mon 



C 2 



