SURVEY OF THE PABES : WEST LONDON 165 



seen flying over the water, it has no wild bird 

 hfe, simply because there is no spot where a 

 wild bird can breed. The existing small island, 

 close to the north bank and the sub-rangers' 

 village, is used by some of the ducks to breed 

 in. Something might be done to make this island 

 more attractive to birds. 



With one, perhaps two, exceptions, the com- 

 paratively large birds in the central parks have 

 been so fully written about in former chapters 

 that nothing more need be said of them in this 

 place. It remains only to speak of the owls in 

 Kensington Gardens. 



It is certainly curious to find that in these 

 gardens, where, as we have seen, birds are not 

 encouraged, two such species as the jackdaw 

 and owl are still resident, although long vanished 

 from all their other old haunts in London. Of 

 so important a bird as the owl I should have 

 preferred to write at some length in one of the 

 earlier chapters, but there was very little to say, 

 owing to its rarity and secrecy. Nor could it 

 be included in the chapters on recent colonists, 

 since it is probable that it has always been an 

 inhabitant of Kensington Gardens, although its 

 existence there has not been noticed by those 



