130 BIBDS IN LONDON 



migration which impresses the mind. Birds are 

 seldom seen arriving in spring. Walking to-day 

 in some park or garden, we hear the first willow- 

 wren's delicate tender warble among the fresh 

 April foliage. It was not heard yesterday, but 

 the small modest-coloured singer may have been 

 there nevertheless, hidden and silent among the 

 evergreens. The birds that appear in the 

 autumn are plainly travellers that have come 

 from some distant place, and have yet far to go. 

 Wheatears may be seen if looked for in August 

 on Hampstead Heath, and occasionally a few 

 other large open spaces in or near London. In 

 September and October swallows and martins 

 put in an appearance, and although they refuse 

 to make their summer home in inner London, 

 they often come in considerable numbers and 

 remain for many days, even for weeks, in the 

 parks in autumn. 



It has been conjectured that the paucity of 

 winged insect life in London is the cause of the 

 departure of swallows and house-martins as 

 breeding species. Yet in the autumn of 1896, 

 from September to the middle of October, 

 hundreds of these birds lived in the central and 

 many other parks in London, and doubtless they 



