NATURE NEAR LONDON 



might and main. The willow-wrens were nearly 

 as numerous. All the gorse seemed full of them 

 for a few days. Then by degrees they gradually 

 spread abroad, and dispersed among the hedges. 



But in the following springs nothing of the kind 

 occurred. Chiff-chaff and willow-wren came as 

 usual, but they did not arrive in a crowd at once. 

 This may have been owing to the flight going 

 elsewhere, or possibly the flock were diminished 

 by failure to rear the young broods in so drenching a 

 season as 1879, which would explain the difference 

 observed next spring. There was no scarcity, but 

 there was a lack of the bustle and excitement and 

 flood of song that accompanied their advent two 

 years before. 



Upon a piece of waste land at the corner of the 

 furze a very large cinder and dust heap was made by 

 carting refuse there from the neighbouring suburb. 

 During the sharp and continued frosts of the winter 

 this dust-heap was the resort of almost every species 

 of bird sparrows, starlings, greenfinches, and 

 rooks searching for any stray morsels of food. 

 Some bird-catchers soon noticed this concourse, 

 and spread their nets among the adjacent rushes, 

 but fortunately with little success. 



I say fortunately, not because I fear the extinc- 

 tion of small birds, but because of the miserable 

 fate that awaits the captive. Far better for the 

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