SOUTH-WEST LONDON 255 



may be heard, as well as the common resident 

 songsters found in other open spaces. The 

 carrion crow is a constant visitor, and very tame, 

 knowing that he is safe. Beverley Brook has 

 no aquatic birds in it, but it would be easy to 

 make a small rushy sanctuary in the marshy 

 borders, protected from mischievous persons, 

 for the moorhen, sedge-warbler, and other 

 species. I have seen a small boy with an earth- 

 worm at the end of a piece of thread pull out 

 thirty to forty minnows in as many minutes. 

 Little grebes and kingfishers would not want for 

 food in such a place. 



South and west of Barnes Common, London, 

 as we progress, becomes increasingly rural, with 

 large private park-like grounds, until we arrive 

 at the open spaces of Putney Heath, Lower 

 Putney Common, and Wimbledon Common, 

 which together form an area of 1,412 acres, or 

 nearly three times as large as Hampstead Heath. 

 It seems only appropriate that the most rural 

 portion of the most rural district in London 

 should have so large an open space, and that in 

 character this space should be wilder and more 

 refreshing to the spirit than any other in the 



