CROWS IN LONDON 



21 



of birds ; a spirited creature, a great hater and 

 persecutor of the carrion crows when they come. 

 The other three consort together in Eegent's 

 Park ; once or twice they have built a nest, but 



THE LAST RAVEN 



failed to hatch their eggs. Probably all 

 three are females. When, some time ago, 

 the ' Son of the Marshes ' wrote that the 

 magpie had been extirpated in his own 

 county of Surrey, and that to see it he 

 should have to visit the London parks, he made 

 too much of these escaped birds, which may be 

 numbered on the fingers of one hand. Yet we 

 know that the pie was formerly even in this 



