140 BIRDS IN LONDON 



with their thousands, and the noise of their 

 singing and chattering is so great that a person 

 standing on the edge of the lake can hardly 

 hear himself speak. These meeting places are 

 evidently growing in favour, and if the autumn of 

 1898 shows as great an increase as those of 1896 

 and 1897 over previous years, London will have 

 as compensation for its lost rookeries some very 

 fine clouds of starlings. At the beginning of 

 October most of the birds go away to spend the 

 winter in the country, or possibly abroad. In 

 February and March they begin to reappear in 

 small flocks, and gradually scatter over the 

 whole area of the metropolis, each pair going 

 back to its old nesting-hole. 



The annual scattering of robins at the end 

 of summer, when, after the moult, the old birds 

 attack and drive away the young, has been 

 described in the last chapter. This habit of the 

 bird alone would cause a good deal of moving 

 about of the London robins each year, but it is 

 also a very general belief of ornithologists that 

 at this season there is a large migratory move- 

 ment of young robins throughout the country. 

 At all events, it is a fact that in August and 

 September robins go about in London a good 



