London Birds. 23 



The ventriloquism of many birds, especially of the 

 Heron and wild fowl tribes, is very strange. In the 

 swampy districts of Finland, one may hear a party 01 

 Cranes apparently within easy shot, and with diffi- 

 culty make them out almost invisible specks in the 

 sky. Another morning, or very likely the same day 

 the projection of the voice seems to be independent 

 of the state of the atmosphere one hears what 

 sounds a very distant cry, and is startled on looking 

 up to see half-a-dozen great birds streaming along, 

 not a hundred yards overhead. 



The power, which is no doubt responsible for the 

 legends common all over Europe, of spectral packs 

 of hounds hunting the souls of the lost, is by 

 no means confined to the high-flying birds. It 

 is as impossible to tell from its cry where a 

 Corncrake in a hay-field really may be as it is to 

 guess the exact whereabouts of a passing flock of 

 Geese. 



There are probably men living still who have shot 

 Snipe where Belgrave Square now stands. It is said 

 that a very little time ago it was not uncommon to 

 flush one in Hyde Park, between Victoria Gate and 

 the Marble Arch ; but the improvements of the last 

 few years have probably banished them, at least till 

 the days of Lord Macaulay's New Zealander. One 

 reads occasionally of Woodcock picked up in the 

 streets. A case of the kind was not long ago 

 recorded in the Field. The poor bird had shared 

 the fate of many of his kind, and had broken his 

 wing against a telegraph wire in flying over at 

 night. 



Letters in the newspapers recorded that a Wood- 

 cock had flown by Buckingham Palace in the direc- 

 tion of Hyde Park at midday on the 2ist October, 



