96 NATURE NEAR LONDON 



seem favourable to bird life. The reason, of course, is 

 that in the country the crows frequenting woods are shot 

 and kept down as much as possible by gamekeepers. 



In the immediate environs of London keepers are 

 not about, and even a little farther away the land is 

 held by many small owners, and game preservation is 

 not thought of. The numerous pieces of waste ground, 

 "to let on building lease," the excavated ground, where 

 rubbish can be thrown, the refuse and ash heaps these 

 are the haunts of the London crow. Suburban railway 

 stations are often haunted by crows, which perch on the 

 telegraph wires close to the back windows of the houses 

 that abut upon the metals. There they sit, grave and 

 undisturbed by the noisy engines which pass beneath 

 them. 



In the shrubberies around villa gardens, or in the 

 hedges of the small paddocks attached, thrushes and 

 other birds sometimes build their nests. The children 

 of the household watch the progress of the nest, and note 

 the appearance of the eggs with delight. Their friends 

 of larger growth visit the spot occasionally, and orders 

 are given that the birds shall be protected, the gardeners 

 become gamekeepers, and the lawn or shrubbery is 

 guarded like a preserve. Everything goes well till the 

 young birds are almost ready to quit the nest, when one 

 morning they are missing. 



The theft is, perhaps, attributed to the boys of the 

 neighbourhood, but unjustly, unless plain traces of entry 

 are visible. It is either cats or crows. The cats cannot 

 be kept out, not even by a dog, for they watch till his 

 attention is otherwise engaged. Food is not so much 

 the object as the pleasure of destruction, for cats will 

 kill and yet not eat their victim. The crow may not 

 have been seen in the garden, and it may be said that he 



