44 BIRDS IN LONDON 



nest a little way out of the hurly-burly, or at 

 all events within easy reach of the country ; 

 for how, they might ask, can this large flesh- 

 eating, voracious creature feed himself and rear 

 a nest full of young with cormorant appetites in 

 London ? 



Eliza Cook, whose now universally neglected 

 works I admired as a boy, makes the bird say. 

 in her ' Song of the Crow ' : 



I plunged my beak in the marbling cheek, 

 I perched on the clammy brow ; 

 And a dainty treat was that fresh meat 

 To the greedy carrion crow. 



The unknown author of ' The Twa Corbies ' 

 was a better naturalist as well as a better poet 

 when he wrote 



I'll pick out his bonny blue een. 



But this relates to a time when the bodies of 

 dead men, as well as of other large animals, 

 were left lying promiscuously about ; in these 

 ultra-civilised days, when all dead things are 

 quickly and decently interred, the greedy carrion 

 crow has greatly modified his feeding habits. 

 In London, as in most places, he takes whatever 

 he finds on the table, and though not in principle 



