NATURE NEAR LONDON SEES 



situate at the edge of extensive arable fields. In 

 these, though not overlooked by gamekeepers, there 

 is a good deal of game which is preserved by the 

 tenants of the farms. After the bitter winter and 

 wet summer of 1879, there was a complaint, too 

 well founded, that the partridges were diminished 

 in numbers. But the crows were not. There 

 were as many of them as ever. When there were 

 many partridges, the loss of a few eggs or chicks 

 was not so important. But when there are but 

 few, every egg or chick destroyed retards the re- 

 stocking of the fields. 



The existence of so many crows all round 

 London is, in short, a constant check upon the 

 game. The belt of land immediately outside the 

 houses, and lying between them and the plantations 

 which are preserved, is the crow's reserve, where 

 he hunts in security. He is so safe that he has 

 almost lost all dread of man, and his motions can 

 be observed without trouble. The ash-heap at 

 tho corner of the furze, besides the crows, be- 

 came the resort of rats, whose holes were so thick 

 in the bank as to form quite a bury. After the 

 rats came the weasels. 



When the rats were most numerous, before the 



ash-heap was sifted, there was a weasel there nearly 



every day, slipping in and out of their holes. In 



the depth of the country an observer might walk 



130 



