290 CORVIDJE. 



settlement being deserted when the neighbouring dwelling 

 has been pulled down, or even abandoned as a habitation. 



This seeming partiality is carried to such an extent that 

 Rooks' nests are occasionally found in various parts of the 

 most crowded cities, and even in London itself, though here 

 the extension of buildings in every direction, by widening 

 the distance of the birds' feeding-ground, has lessened and 

 will go on lessening their numbers. The large rookery that 

 existed in the Temple Gardens and furnished Goldsmith 

 with opportunities of observing its "policy" came to an end 

 in the early part of this century*, and that in Carlton House 

 Gardens in 1827, though its evicted owners are said to have 

 removed to Spring Gardens. The rookery also in Doctors' 

 Commons has ceased to exist, but that in Gray's Inn Garden 

 still flourishes and is now the largest in London, containing 

 about thirty nests. Until the year 1835, when the steeple 

 of Bow Church was repaired, a pair had their nest between 

 the wings of the dragon forming the vane at its top. Then 

 they removed to a plane-tree near the corner of Wood Street 

 and Cheapside, where they remained for some years, a second 

 nest being also built 'in it in 1845. In 1838, a pair began 

 a nest on the crown which surmounts the vane of St. Olave's, 

 Crutched Friars. In the garden of Chesterfield House 

 there was for many years a considerable rookery, containing 

 about fifty nests in 1846, but this is now built over, though 

 the adjoining garden of Wharncliffe House still harbours 

 some ten nests. There are besides several other settlements 

 of the species within the limits of London. f Mr. Blackwall 

 recorded (Zool. Journ. v. p. 10) that for. two years three 



* Mr. Harting has kindly pointed out that in an anonymous ' History of 

 Epsom ' this rookery is said (p. 130) to have originated in birds taken from 

 Woodcote Green in Surrey by Sir William Northey, and to have existed in 1825. 

 Rennie however wrote of it in 1831 (Archit. B. p. 220) as being "long 

 abandoned ". 



f Thus Dr. Hamilton mentions (Zool. 1878, pp. 194-196) rookeries at Holland 

 House, in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Hereford Square, Marylebone Road, 

 Gower Street and Gordon Place. In 1831, says Rennie, there was a rookery at 

 the back of Whitehall ; according to Jennings (Ornithologia, p. 75) there was 

 one for many years in the churchyard of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East ; and Mr. 

 Harting says that in 1876 there was a nest in Bermondsey churchyard. 



