MOVEMENTS OF LONDON BIRDS 139 



and silent as if expecting something, and at 

 intervals of a minute or two a simultaneous cry 

 would burst from them. 



I have observed that on winter evenings 

 these daws fly away from the gardens in a north- 

 westerly direction : where their winter roosting- 

 place is I have not discovered. 



The starling is the most interesting London 

 bird in his autumn movements. Tt is only at 

 the end of July, when they are gathered in large 

 bodies, that some idea can be formed of their 

 numbers. Flocks of a dozen to forty or fifty birds 

 may be seen in any park and green space any 

 day throughout the winter ; these are the birds 

 that winter with us, and are but a small remnant 

 of the entire number that breed in London. 

 At the end of June the starlings begin to con- 

 gregate every evening at their favourite roosting- 

 places. Of these there are several, the most 

 favoured being the islands in the ornamental 

 water at Eegent's Park, the island in the 

 Serpentine, and at Buckingham Palace grounds 

 and Battersea Park. The last is the most im- 

 portant. Before sunset the birds are seen 

 pouring in, flock after flock, from all quarters, 

 until the trees on the island are black 



