204 BIRDS 



further to add concerning them in the short section 

 entitled " Our Feathered Policemen." 



In the Winter-time the neighbourhood of London 

 is visited by the Meadow Pipit, a near relative of 

 the Titlark and the Skylark. Half an hour's ride 

 from Charing Cross will take the wayfarer to its 

 nesting haunts. This bird possesses a tittering 

 song : it utters it whilst in the air, after the manner 

 of the Lark, but it does not in any way emit such 

 soul-stirring music as the " blithe spirit " of which 

 Shelley has written so delightfully in his well- 

 known Ode. 



The Gulls which visit the Thames and the sheets 

 of water in the parks during Winter-time seem to 

 afford a fund of interest to the Londoner. These 

 birds leave their wild fastnesses and make London 

 their home when hard weather compels them to 

 come inland and depend, to a large extent, upon 

 what they can chance to pick up from the surface 

 of the water. It is a pleasant sight to see the 

 Gulls being fed along the Thames Embankment, 

 the worker sharing his meal with the birds, these 

 latter simply revelling in their acrobatic feats in 

 the air as they swoop down upon some precious 

 tit-bit that is tossed towards them. These Gull- 

 visitors are mostly Black-headed Gulls, but the 

 brownish hood of Spring and Summer is lost in 

 the Winter and is not regained until the following 

 Spring. 



