IX 



BY A WINTER SEA 



IT is hard to realise, until one has proof of it 

 by eye and ear, how many wild things are to be seen 

 within a small space on the coast or inland, even at 

 the least promising spot. This is often well shown 

 in a city. Take quite a small garden in London 

 itself, at some district near the river or one of the 

 larger parks, and look out for bird life in its trees, 

 even from time to time during a year. Birds will 

 appear whose presence we should never expect. 

 There is a poplar tree in a Chelsea garden a small 

 garden, where we might look only for London cats 

 and sparrows a tree which I can see now from 

 my window. One day a chaffinch dropped down 

 from it into the roadway with that bold " spink, 

 spink." Looking at the poplar's stripped boughs 

 another day I saw a small bird with movements 

 whose sprightliness bespoke at once a titmouse ; 

 and, indeed, before this I had seen a pair of blue 

 titmice in this very tree. Ring doves are often 

 there ; starlings are there now and then, or on the 

 roof close by ; a carrion crow was often to be heard 

 or seen flying over. I have seen swifts passing by, 

 high overhead, and a swallow or a martin hawking 

 for flies in October along the roadway beneath. The 



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