16 BIRDS IN LONDON 



our tea ' ; and home they trudged across the park, 

 with hearts refreshed and lightened, no doubt, 

 to be succeeded by others and still others, 

 London workmen and their wives and children, 

 until the sun had set and the birds were all 

 gone. 



Here then is an object lesson which no 

 person who is capable of reading the emotions 

 in the countenance, who has any sympathy with 

 his fellow-creatures, can fail to be impressed by. 

 Not only at that spot in Hyde Park may it be 

 seen, but at all the parks and open spaces in 

 London ; in some more than others, as at St, 

 James's Park, where the gulls are fed during 

 the winter months, and at Battersea and Eegent's 

 Parks, where the starlings congregate every 

 evening in July and August. What we see is 

 the perpetual hunger of the heart and craving 

 of those who are compelled to live apart from 

 Nature, who have only these momentary glimpses 

 of her face, and of the refreshment they ex- 

 perience at sight of trees and grass and water, 

 and, above everything, of wild and glad animal 

 life. How important, then, that the most should 

 be made of our few suitable open spaces ; that 

 everything possible should be done to maintain 



