4 London Bzrds. 



fight. There is not a clearer or more beautiful 

 instance of the kind than the wing of a common 

 Brown Owl. 



The bird has to hunt close for its prey in the 

 dark. If it cut the air with the noisy flight of a 

 Partridge or Wood Pigeon it would soon starve, for 

 every one of the timid little creatures which are its 

 natural food would take good care to keep out of 

 sight till the danger was past ; and so as an oar is 

 muffled to deaden the splash Providence has hung a 

 soft, loose fringe of down to the front of the quill. 

 This makes the Owl's flight, as every one who 

 has watched a Barn Owl " mousing " knows, perfectly 

 silent. 



Of the second, the " Passerine " the enormous 

 order into which are jumbled all which cannot be 

 classed as birds of prey or poultry, and which, as a 

 rule, neither climb, nor wade, nor swim we have a 

 very respectable party constantly in London. Not 

 less than seventeen or eighteen appear in the list of 

 birds seen within the year referred to at the beginning 

 of the chapter, and this does not of course nearly 

 exhaust the number of common visitors. 



First come the Thrushes the most timid, perhaps, 

 of all ; but, by one of the apparent contradictions 

 with which all classifications abound, nearly related 

 to the Shrikes, which are the connecting link 

 between the passeres and the birds of prey, and, in 

 their own degree, scarcely less tyrants than the 

 Eagles themselves. Song-thrushes are fairly common 

 in Kensington Gardens and St. James's Park, where 

 they nest regularly, and sing beautifully at times ; 

 though, as a rule, they are very shy. During the 

 middle of the day they manage, to a great extent, to 

 keep out of sight ; and it is not often, when many 



