168 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



every railway arch; and the incubating bird sits 

 unalarmed amid the iron plates and girders when 

 the express train rushes overhead, so close to her 

 that one would imagine that the thunderous jarring 

 noise would cause the poor thing to drop down dead 

 with terror* To this indifference to the mere harmless 

 racket of civilization we owe it that birds are so 

 numerous around, and even in, London ; and that 

 in Kew Gardens, which, on account of its position 

 on the water side, and the numerous railroads 

 surrounding it, is almost as much tortured with 

 noise as Willesden or Clapham Junction, birds are 

 concentrated in thousands* Food is not more abun- 

 dant there than in other places ; yet it would be 

 difficult to find a piece of ground of the same extent 

 in the country proper, where all is silent and there 

 are no human crowds, with so large a bird popu- 

 lation. They are more numerous in Kew than else- 

 where, in spite of the noise and the people, because 

 they are partially protected there from their human 

 persecutors* It is a joy to visit the gardens in spring, 

 as much to hear the melody of the birds as to look 

 at the strange and lovely vegetable forms. On a 

 June evening with a pure sunny sky, when the air 

 is elastic after rain, how it rings and palpitates with 

 the fine sounds that people it, and which seem 

 infinite in variety ! Has England, burdened with 

 care and long estranged from Nature, so many sweet 



