224 BIRDS IN LONDON 



trees. For there are not in all England such 

 melancholy-looking trees as those of Green- 

 wich. You cannot get away from the sight of 

 their sad mutilated condition ; and when you 

 walk on and on, this way and that, looking 

 from tree to tree, to find them all lopped off 

 at the same height from the ground, you 

 cannot help being depressed. You are told that 

 they were thus mutilated some twenty to twentj''- 

 five years ago to save them from further decay ! 

 What should we say of the head physician of 

 some big hospital who should one day issue an 

 order that all patients, indoor and outdoor, should 

 be subjected to the same treatment — that they 

 should be bled and salivated with mercury in 

 the good old way, men, women, and children, 

 whatever their ailments might be ? His science 

 would be about on a par with that of the 

 authors of this hideous disfigurement of all the 

 trees in a large park — old and young, decayed 

 and sound, Spanish chestnut, oak, elm, beech, 

 horse-chestnut, every one lopped at the same 

 height from the ground ! We have seen in a 

 former chapter what the effect of this measure 

 was on the nobler bird life of the park. 



Of all the crows that formerly inhabited 



