104 LONDON BIRDS 



sitting on one of the pinnacles of Westminster Palace ; l 

 nor was it until the note was in print that I ascertained 

 that this bird was almost indubitably one of three 

 or four which had been released from the Zoological 

 Gardens in Regent Park, and which return regularly to 

 the Zoo for their meals ! 



Sir Thomas Digby Pigott, a later, but not less vigilant, 

 observer of urban birds than Dr. Hamilton, stated in 

 1892 that the house-martin built in several parts of 

 London, notably in St. James's Street. I felt some 

 surprise on reading this, for although fairly watchful 

 in such matters, I have never seen martins, swallows, 

 or swifts in the metropolis except on passage. I doubt 

 whether there is enough winged insect life outdoors in 

 London to sustain a hungry brood of young martins, 

 though many a distracted housewife knows how flies 

 abound indoors. However, in the 'eighties, when I 

 used to ride in Rotten Row, I marked each summer a 

 pair of spotted flycatchers nesting in one of the elms at 

 the lower end of the ride. Do they come there still ? 

 Blackbirds and thrushes certainly are more plentiful 

 than of yore in the parks ; robins, chaffinches, and tits 

 avoid the dry parts of the town, but remain pretty 

 regularly in the garden round the Ranger's Lodge in 

 Hyde Park. 



Food, after all, is the most constant factor in a bird's 

 choice of lodging ; witness the crowds of blackheaded 

 gulls which throng London Bridge and the water in St. 

 James's Park during the winter months. Fifteen years 

 ago not one was to be seen there. It was the memor- 



1 Memories of the MontJis, Fourth Series, p. 120. 



