THE BIRDS OF LONDON. 285 
as well as in many a cranny and deserted chimney in the heart of 
the metropolis. A hole under a window in Gray’s Inn Square 
has been tenanted by Starlings for the last forty years; and I can 
say the same, from my own observation, on the side of a parapet 
in Stratford Place, Oxford Street. Nothing can be more delightful 
than to hear a cock Starling whistling his low melodious song 
on an early spring morning, though he can be hoarse and harsh 
enough if his nest be disturbed. Do Starlings have two broods 
a-year? From my observations of our London Starlings, I think 
many of them do. I have seen them all busy nesting early in 
spring, and then again late in May and June—apparently the same 
birds—hard at it again. I can scarcely suppose other starlings 
come and tuke their place, as I know the haunts and nesting-places 
of almost every pair.* 
Raven, Corvus corax.—A casual visitor. Mr. Jesse, in his 
‘Gleanings,’ gives an interesting story of a Raven which was taken 
from a nest on the top of an elm tree in Hyde Park, about the 
time the bridge was built which spans the water between Ken- 
sington Gardens and the park. Early one morning in May, 1850, 
one of the park keepers observed two Ravens fighting in the 
Regent’s Park; one was killed in the fight and picked up by the 
keeper. Mr. Bond also has a Raven in his collection which was 
killed in the Regent’s Park. Amongst the poets generally this 
bird has a bad character :— 
“The greedy Raven that for death doth call, 
Spoiling poor lambs.”—Drayron. 
“ The sad presaging Raven, that tolls 
The sick man’s passport in her hollow beak.”—Martowr. 
“Tt comes o’er my memory, 
As doth the Raven o’er the infectious house, 
Boding to all.” —SuakESPEARE. 
«The Danish Raven, lur’d by annual prey, 
Hung o’er the land incessant.” —THomson. 
In allusion to the famous Danish standard, called the ‘ Reafen,” 
or Raven. The Danes imagined that before a battle the Raven 
wrought on the standard clapped its wings or hung its head in 
token of victory or defeat. 
* See ‘ Zoologist,’ 1876, p. 5164, and 1879, p. 218,—Ep. 
