340 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



multiplied, have followed the spread of plantation into new 

 districts, have become a positive curse to the farmer, and 

 have added themselves as a new and delightful feature to 

 London life. London has had its wild house-pigeons 

 probably from time immemorial ; Stowe, the Elizabethan 

 antiquary, shows us how they were household words in his 

 day by his story of how the boys of St. Anthony's Hospital 

 used to call ' Paul's pigeons ' after the St. Paul's boys in the 

 street. They would respond with a cry of 'Anthony pigs/ 

 and then both sides naturally fell to fighting. But the white- 

 necked, portly London wood-pigeon is a colonist of much 

 more modern date. London wood-pigeons are believed all 

 to be descended from a few pairs turned out in the grounds 

 of Buckingham Palace by the late King when Prince of 

 Wales. In the country they are among the wariest of birds ; 

 in London they show the same intelligence by presuming to 

 an almost ludicrous extent on man's friendliness. Swollen 

 to an enormous size by inactivity and good living, they will 

 scarcely step out of the way of the nursemaids' perambulators 

 in the parks. Yet they have not lost their cunning, when 

 it is needed. We have watched a half-grown Persian cat 

 stalking a large and placid wood-pigeon in a little garden 

 abutting on one of the London parks, until it seemed as if 

 the cat's fierce concentration must win its prize, and the 

 pigeon's indifference prove fatal ; yet just at the right moment, 

 with one more sidelong glance of the complacent eyes, the 

 bird flapped gently over the fence, and the cat was left 

 petrified and glaring. 



It is remarkable how the distinction in the natural habits 

 of the two kinds of common London pigeons still persists 

 in spite of the great change in the birds' present life and 

 surroundings. The pigeons of St. Paul's and the Royal 

 Exchange and many other London buildings are descendants 



