BIRDS OF LONDON. 75 



Pour'd out profusely, silent. Join'd to these, 

 Innumerable songsters, in the freshening shade 

 Of new-sprung leaves, their modulations mix 

 Mellifluous, The Jay, the Rook, the Daw, 

 And each harsh pipe discordant heard alone, 

 Aid the full concert ; while the Stock Dove breathes 

 A melancholy murmur through the whole." 



Spring. 



The only fault I find with the preceding lines is, they 

 would seem to imply that the Nightingale sings only in 

 the night, a mistake which, with all the knowledge now 

 abroad, is very commonly made. 



And here it may be observed, that although many of the 

 bird tribe seem to prefer the vicinity of the residence of 

 man for their domicile, yet they, for the most part, avoid 

 cities and large towns, for one, among other reasons, 

 because there is no food for them. There are, notwith- 

 standing, some remarkable exceptions to this. The 

 House Sparrow is to be seen, I believe, in every part of 

 London. There is a Rookery in the Tower, and another 

 was, till lately, in Carlton Palace gardens; but the trees 

 having been cut down to make room for the improvements 

 going on there, the Rooks have removed this spring, (1827,) 

 to some trees behind the houses in New Street, Spring 

 Gardens. There was also, for many years, a rookery on the 

 trees in the church yard of St. Dunstaii's in the East, a short 

 distance from the Tower; the Rooks for some years past 

 deserted that spot, owing, it is believed, to the fire that oc- 

 curred a few years ago at the old Custom House. But the 

 present spring, 1827, they have begun again to build on 

 those trees, which are not elm, but a species of plane. There 

 was also, formerly, a rookery on some large elm trees in the 

 College Garden behind the Ecclesiastical Court in Doctors' 1 



e2 



