138 BIEDS IN LONDON 



parks where there is shelter, and during severe 

 frosts they feed at the same table with the 

 ornamental waterfowl. From all the smaller 

 lakes which they have recently colonised they 

 vanish in cold weather. In autumn they wander 

 about a good deal by night ; any small piece of 

 water will attract them, and their cries will be 

 heard during the dark hours ; before it is light 

 they will be gone. 



Crows and rooks are most often seen in 

 London during the winter months. Many rooks 

 have their winter roosting-place in Eichmond 

 Park, and small bands of these birds visit the 

 central parks and other open spaces. On the 

 morning of February 3, 1897, about fifty rooks 

 visited Kensington Gardens and fed for some 



o 



hours on the strip of grassed land adjoining the 

 palace. The whole jackdaw colony, numbering 

 twenty-four birds, fed with them, and when, 

 about twelve o'clock, the visitors rose up and 

 flew away, the daws, after seeing them off, 

 returned in a body to the tree-tops near the 

 palace, and for the rest of the day continued in 

 an excited state. From time to time they would 

 rush up with a loud clamour, then return to the 

 tree-tops, where they would sit close together 



