LONDON'S LITTLE BIRDS 127 



fatally to one of the combatants. The raven 

 has the same savage disposition and habit with 

 regard to its young ; and when a young raven, 

 in disposition a ' chip of the old block,' refuses 

 to go when ordered, and fights to stay, it 

 occasionally happens that one of the birds gets 

 killed. But the raven has a tremendous 

 weapon, a stone axe, in his massive beak ; how 

 much greater the fury and bulldog tenacity of 

 the robin must be to kill one of his own kind 

 with so feeble a weapon as his small soft bill ! 

 At the end of the summer of 1896 two robins 

 were observed fighting all day long in the 

 private gardens of Kensington Palace, the fight 

 ending in the death of one of the birds. 



Finally, as a result of all the chasing and 

 fighting that goes on, the young birds are 

 driven out to find homes for themselves. In 

 London, in the interior parks, not many young 

 robins are reared, but many of those that 

 have been reared in the suburban districts drift 

 into London, and altogether a considerable 

 number of birds roam about the metropolis in 

 search of some suitable green spot to settle in ; 

 and I will only add here, in anticipation of what 

 will be said in a later chapter, that if suitable 



