THE BIRDS OF LONDON 179 



debouches into High Holborn, one may notice on the 

 opposite side of the way a low archway. Through 

 it a passage leads between high buildings to an open 

 spa-ce nearly surrounded on all sides by legal offices. 

 The place is known as Gray's Inn Gardens, and is 

 well kept and httle frequented. The sooty stretch 

 of grass which looks as green and fresh as it is possible 

 to look in the centre of London, is studded with a 

 large number of taU plane trees in good condition 

 which give the place a charmingly rural aspect 

 quite unexpected in such a quarter. It is here, 

 separated by some miles on every side from the 

 open country, that there still exists in dwindling 

 numbers one of the most ancient colonies of rooks ; 

 the nests still hang in the branches of the plane 

 trees and up to the present the birds have always 

 returned in the spring to put them in repair and 

 hatch out their young. 



At one time this rookery was far more extensive 

 than it is now. Even in 1878 there were twenty- 

 eight full nests in the breeding season ; this year I 

 count eighteen nests only. An interesting feature 

 of the place, and one which, doubtless, tends to 

 attach the colony to it, is the care which is taken of 

 the birds. They are fed regularly, the food given 

 being dog-biscuit steeped in water. It is spread 

 by the gardener on an enclosed mound in the 

 centre of the gardens, and it proves very attractive 

 to a host of sparrows as well as to the rooks. 



The rook, most conservative of all birds as he is, 

 is now almost driven out of London. Even twelve 

 years ago there were still several extensive rookeries 

 in London. Writing so recently as 1878 Dr. E. 

 Hamilton gives in the Zoologist an account of the 



