SOUTH-WEST LONDON 243 



birds, with many other bright voices, as would 

 be hard to match in any purely rural district. 

 It is interesting to know that the wren, which is 

 dying out in other London parks, has steadily 

 increased at Battersea, and is now quite 

 common. Eobins and hedge-sparrows are also 

 more numerous than in our other open spaces. 

 A number of migrants are attracted to this spot 

 every summer ; of these the pied wagtail, lesser 

 whitethroat, reed-warbler, and cuckoo bred 

 last season. The larger birds are the wood- 

 pigeon, moorhen, dabchick, and to these the 

 carrion crow may now be added as a breeding 

 species. 



Clapham Common (220 acres) is the nearest 

 to central London of that large, loose group of 

 commons distinctive of the South-west district, 

 its distance from Battersea being a little over a 

 mile, and from Charing Cross about three miles 

 and a half. Like Hackney Downs, it is a grassy 

 space, but flatter, and having the appearance of 

 a piece of ground not yet built upon it may be 

 described as the least interesting open space in 

 the metropolis. To the smoke and dust breath- 

 ing, close-crowxied inhabitants of Bethnal Green, 



R 2 



