THE CABBION CBOW IN THE BALANCE 39 



tinuous murmur maj'be heard, and the gUnting of 

 distant lamps catches the eye through the trees ; 

 these fitful gleams and distant sounds but make 

 the silence and darkness all the more deep and 

 impressive. Suddenly the whistling of wings is 

 heard, and the loud startled cry of a mallard, 

 as the birds, vaguely seen, rush by overhead ; 

 the effect on the mind is wonderful — one has 

 been transported as by a miracle into the midst 

 of a wild and solitary nature. 



Both by day and night there is much going 

 to and fro between the Serpentine and the Eound 

 Pond, but each bird appears to be faithful to 

 its home, and those that have been reared on the 

 Eound Pond breed in its vicinity on the west 

 side of the gardens. Where their eggs are 

 deposited is known to few. Strange as it may 

 seem, they nest in the trees, in holes in the 

 trunks of the large elms, in many cases at a 

 height of thirty feet or more from the ground. 

 Some of the breeding-trees are known, of others 

 the secret has been well kept by the birds. 

 Not a few ducks breed in Holland Park, and 

 find it an exceedingly difiicult matter to get 

 their broods into the gardens. More than once 

 the strange spectacle of a duck leading its newly- 



