BRITISH BIRDS AND BIRD LOVERS. 17 1 



Gardens and Regent's Park. In this latter locality and in 

 Hyde Park the blackcap sings during summer. In such 

 situations too the swallow tribe may be noticed, being banished 

 there and to the suburbs by the smoke and noise. The star- 

 ling, however, makes its nests on the top of the tall West End 

 mansions, and occasionally a few martins will build under the 

 eaves of such houses. All these are favourites of our lawyer. 

 He has ascertained that the birds indigenous to London may 

 thus be catalogued, according to the frequency of their occur- 

 ring : Sparrow, redbreast, starling, rook, thrush, blackbird, 

 blue titmouse. During the severe weather which closed 1874, 

 fieldfares and redwings were picked up starved to death in the 

 great West End thoroughfares. On one day at the beginning 

 of January, 1874, our friend observed in the Temple Gardens 

 as the snow was melting early in the afternoon a Royston crow, 

 two redwings, two thrushes, a blackbird, several starlings and a 

 moorhen. This was a red-letter day to the lawyer naturalist. 

 The enumeration of these birds will surprise those who fancy 

 that the practical study of ornithology is impossible in London, 

 and nothing has been said of the many summer visitants which 

 attentive observation will discover by their notes at early morn- 

 ing and after the park gates are closed at night. To ascend to 

 a higher family than any which we have hitherto touched, some 

 years ago a pair of sparrow-hawks reared their young among the 

 coils of rope at the feet of Nelson in Trafalgar Square, and 

 another pair for several seasons built and reared their young be- 

 tween the wings of the golden dragon which formed the weather- 

 vane of Bow Church, Cheapside.* By noting these birds our 

 lawyer relieves the monotony of business and proves conclus- 

 sively that a love of nature is not incompatible with life in a 

 great city. 



In the portraits of the country clergyman and doctor, the 

 contemplative and scientific aspects of the ornithologist have 



* For many of these facts see the Field for January 16 and 23, 1875. 



