2O London Birds. 



profit, and throw from a distance and hurl stones 

 arrows and various kinds of darts at the crows, 

 pigeons, and other kinds of birds building their nests 

 and sitting on the walls and openings of the church, 

 and in doing so break the glass windows and stone 

 images of the said church." 



There is a legend that a hole was once neatly 

 drilled in a window, and a bullet embedded in a 

 book-case, within a few feet of the head of a high 

 dignitary of Her Majesty's Civil Service, by a sport- 

 ing young gentleman, who took a flying shot with a 

 saloon pistol at a Pigeon in the quadrangle of Somer- 

 set House. 



The Wood Pigeons are probably the only wild 

 species of the gallinacice the " poultry " order to 

 which most of our gamebirds belong common in 

 London ; but not long ago there was one very fine 

 fellow to be seen in St. James's Park who deserves 

 special mention. He was a cross between a cock 

 Pheasant and a common hen, and had very nearly 

 the head and neck of his father, with a half-dock 

 tail ; and could fly, if occasion required it, like a 

 genuine rocketer. 



In the next order, the "waders," we have Moor- 

 hens in plenty. In St. James's Park they are tame, 

 and will scramble with the Ducks for bread from the 

 bridge ; but their habits are more natural in the Long 

 Water. There one may watch them paddling about, 

 jerking their tails or prying about shyly for what they 

 can find on the grass outside the little cover by the 

 water's edge. It is impossible to help believing that 

 a Moorhen has an eye for natural beauties, and chooses 

 the overhanging bough or fallen tree by the water for 

 her nest, for picturesqueness quite as much as for 

 convenience. 



