188 BIRDS IN LONDON 



The best feature in this park is the very 

 large extent of well-planted shrubberies, and it 

 is due to the shelter they afford that blackbirds 

 and thrushes are more abundant here than in 

 any other open space in the metropolis, not even 

 excepting that paradise of birds, Battersea Park. 

 It is delightful to listen to such a volume of 

 bird music as there is here morning and evening 

 in spring and summer. Even in December and 

 January, on a dull cold afternoon with a grey 

 smoky mist obscuring everything, a concert of 

 thrushes may be heard in this park with more 

 voices in it than would be heard anywhere in 

 the country. The birds are fed and sheltered 

 and protected when breeding, and they are 

 consequently abundant and happy. What 

 makes all this music the more remarkable is the 

 noisiness of the neighbourhood. The park is 

 surrounded by railway lines ; trains rush by with 

 shrieks and earth-shaking thunder every few 

 moments, and the adjoining thoroughfare of 

 Seven Sisters Eoad is full of the loud noises of 

 traffic. Here, more than anywhere in London, 

 you are reminded of Milton's description of the 

 jarring and discordant grating sounds at the 

 opening of hell's gates ; and one would imagine 



