280 BIEDS IN LONDON 



in and act as if demented ; they are like children 

 released from long confinement who go wild with 

 the first taste of liberty : they shout, climb trees, 

 break off branches, pluck the flowers ; but all 

 this is purely the result of a kind of mental 

 intoxication. They are not ' barbarians ' or 

 ' yahoos,' as they are sometimes described by 

 onlookers at the first opening of a new park ; 

 they are nothing more than excited young 

 people ; the excitement passes, and after a short 

 time the damage ceases, and the place becomes 

 so orderly, and so seldom is any damage done, 

 that the park could almost be left to take care 

 of itself. 



I am here tempted to relate two incidents 

 which have occurred at different times in one 

 small open space Clissold Park. Some tame 

 rooks were kept with the object of establishing 

 a rookery (of which more in a later chapter), and 

 one day last year some young miscreants, who 

 subsequently made their escape, stoned three of 

 the birds to death. The second incident relates 

 to a chaffinch and its nest. The nest was 

 built on a stunted half-dead thorn-bush, very low 

 down and much exposed to sight. Just at the 

 time when the nest was being built some forty 



