London Birds. 19 



But a man may smile and be a villain, and birds 

 are, apparently, no more to be trusted than men. 



A lady lately took for a few months a house in 

 Chester Square. The drains were duly inspected 

 and pronounced faultless, and she took possession 

 with every prospect of a pleasant season. It was 

 not to be. A cloud of mystery hung over the house. 

 Servants were disturbed by midnight rappings and 

 awaked at daybreak by uncanny whisperings ; and 

 one after another complained of feeling ill, and gave 

 warning. 



When at last the lady herself had given way to 

 the universal languor, and had, by doctor's advice, 

 left town to seek fresh roses in country air, it was 

 found that there was an unnoticed hole in the outer 

 wall of the house, through which Pigeons had found 

 their way in and out, and that the spaces between 

 floorings and rafters were a big dovecote, evidently 

 of several years' standing. There were living 

 young birds snug in nests on guano beds under the 

 floors, and dead birds in various stages of decay. 

 Fourteen nests were found in the wall of one 

 bedroom. 



The origin of London tame Pigeons is lost in the 

 mists of antiquity. Dean Gregory, in a paper on the 

 subject, published in one of the church parish maga- 

 zines, traces the colonies on St. Paul's Cathedral of 

 which there are two, one at the east, the other at the 

 west end, which keep carefully apart, and it is said 

 seldom or never intermarry to the Fourteenth 

 Century, when they were already well established. 

 Among other authorities for this he quotes Robert 

 de Braybrooke, Bishop of London, who, in 1385, 

 wrote " there are those who, instigated by a 

 malignant spirit, are busy to injure more than to 



