London Birds. 7 



the Swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay 

 her young ; even thine altars, O Lord of Hosts, my 

 King, and my God." The commonest Sparrows in 

 the Holy Land Passer Syriacus though not 

 actually the same, are almost identical with our own 

 house Sparrows. 



In spite of overshadowing soot, there is a con- 

 siderable variety to be noticed in the plumage of 

 London Sparrows. One spotted with white and 

 another of unusually light tint, very much the 

 colour of a dormouse, have for more than a year 

 escaped the cats at the foot of the steps by the 

 Duke of York's column. Another, a cock bird, 

 with a tail of almost pure white, had, in the spring 

 of 1892, his headquarters just inside the rails of the 

 Green Park, near Devonshire House. 



Of the Buntings, the only two which figured in 

 the lists of birds seen within the year were a cock 

 Yellowhammer, picked up dead in the Green Park, 

 apparently starved to death ; and another seen in 

 St. James's Square. . The latter was unluckily very 

 tame, and paid dearly for a meal in the gutter, only 

 just managing to flutter on to Lord Derby's house, 

 much the worse for a cut from a cabman's whip. 



In March and April, 1890, the " ill-betiding croak" 

 of the Raven was a familiar sound to West-end 

 Londoners ; a fine fellow, who, judged by this 

 tameness and by the fact that several wing feathers 

 were missing, was probably an escaped captive, 

 having for some weeks settled in Kensington Gardens 

 where Carrion Crows are fairly common and not 

 afraid to make free with the Ducks' eggs. 



Starlings build in numbers in the hollow trees ; 

 and, with a few grey-headed Jackdaws, and poor 

 ill-used Rooks, make themselves generally at home 



