82 BIRDS IN LONDON 



walk in that part of the grounds without soiling 

 his boots. 



It will hardly be credited that the very men 

 who did the work, before setting about it, 

 respectfully informed the park authorities that 

 they considered it would be a great mistake to 

 cut the trees down, not only because they were 

 sound and beautiful to the eye, but for other 

 reasons. One was that the rooks would be 

 driven away ; another that this tall thick grove 

 was a protection to the gardens, and secured 

 the trees scattered over its northern side from 

 the violence of the winds from the west. They 

 were laughed at for their pains, and told that 

 the ' screen ' was not wanted, as every tree was 

 made safe by its own roots ; arid as to the rooks, 

 they would not abandon the gardens where 

 they had bred for generations, but would build 

 new nests on other trees. Finally, when it came 

 to the cutting down, the men begged to be 

 allowed to spare a few of the finest trees in the 

 grove ; and at last one tree, with no fewer than 

 fourteen nests on it : they were sharply ordered 

 to cut down the lot. And cut down they were, 

 with disastrous consequences, as we know, as 

 during the next few years many scores of the 



