THE GABBION GROW, IN THE BALANCE ,35 



numerous ; many bucketfuls of food— meal and 

 grain — are given to them every day when they 

 congregate at the boat-house, and they get 

 besides large quantities of broken bread cast 

 to them by the public ; all day long, and every 

 day when it is not raining, there is a continual 

 procession of men, women, and children bringing 

 food for the birds. Is.it permissible to'ask for 

 whose advantage this large number of ducksis 

 reared and fattened for the table at so small a 

 cost ? Hyde Park is maintained by the nation, 

 and presumably for the nation ; it is a national 

 as well as a royal park ; is it not extraordinary 

 that so noble a possession, the largest and most 

 beautiful open space in the capital of the British 

 empire, the chief city of the world, should be 

 degraded to something like a poultry farm, or 

 at all events a duck-breeding establishment, and 

 that in order to get as much profit as possible 

 out of the ducks, one of the chief ornaments of 

 the park, the one representative of noble wild 

 bird life that has survived until now in London, 

 should be sacrificed ? 



Let us by aU means have ducks, and many 

 of them ; they are gregarious by nature and look 

 well in flocks, and are a source of innocent 



