17 COUNTRY ESSAYS. 



aghast at this etymological development of modern ornithology. 

 Every one knows the chiff-chaff's gentle note. The bird used 

 to be called Sylvia ntfa, and a pretty name it was, bringing be- 

 fore the mind's eye the dainty olive-green denizen of our wood- 

 lands. Open a new ornithological work, and it is now branded 

 as Phylloscopus collybita^ which suggests nothing so much as 

 Bucephalus broken to harness but a confirmed crib-biter. For 

 the rest, our worthy doctor is one day transported into raptures 

 by being authorised to write after his name those mystic letters 

 M.B.O.U., which might seem to outsiders an appropriate 

 attempt to reproduce the booming of the bittern, but which 

 really denote Member of the British Ornithological Union. 



These rustic worthies may well be placed in juxtaposition 

 with a portrait from the busy town. Let us take a lawyer, pent 

 up by day in the Temple and returning fagged at evening to his 

 house in the West End. It would not be thought possible for 

 him to find opportunities for ornithology, or even time to in- 

 dulge in its study, save during the few weeks which he snatches 

 in autumn for the grouse. But our friend is an early riser, and 

 only those who have tried* rising with the lark know what a rus 

 in urbe may be found before nine A.M. in the London parks. 

 Thrushes feed there late and early in the day, and even build 

 in high trees inaccessible to boys. Chaffinches, gay as in a 

 country orchard, may be seen there, and robins ; indeed the 

 latter penetrate, especially in winter, to the squares. There are 

 rookeries at Kensington Palace and in Holland Park, The 

 wood-pigeon's coo floats to the ears along with the distant roar 

 of the awakening city, from the tallest trees in Kensington 



* How very early this must be we have often experienced. In summer 

 the lark warbles in the skies long before dawn. Milton has not left un- 

 noticed this habit of the lark 



" To hear the lark begin his flight 

 And singing startle the dull night, 

 From his watch-tower in the skies 

 Till the dappled dawn doth rise." L 'Allegro, 41. 



