163 
THE FERJE NATUKiE OF THE LONDON PARKS. 
By J. E. HARTING, F.L.S., F.Z.S. 
T HE extent and variety of animal life which may be found 
existing in the parks and gardens of London, notwith- 
standing the co-existence of many unfavourable conditions, is 
very remarkable, and furnishes a curious illustration of that 
46 struggle for existence ” which is being perpetually carried on, 
not by man alone, but by all living things. 
In the midst of so densely populated a city as ours, where 
the vegetation of the open spaces is being constantly trodden 
under foot, or struggles upward with difficulty through an at- 
mosphere of smoke and sulphur, it would hardly be supposed 
that any wild creature — unless the rook and the ubiquitous 
sparrow may be so termed and excepted — could find either 
sufficient food or sufficient freedom from molestation to enable 
their existence. The inquisitive naturalist, however, well knows 
that the case is otherwise. 
It is, of course, many years since any of the larger ferae natures 
were to be found in the London parks, although many persons still 
living must remember the deer in Hyde Park ; and may have 
had pointed out to them the places where the last otter was 
speared, and the last hare killed. 
Before considering the attractions which the parks at present 
afford to the naturalist, it may be not uninteresting to glance 
briefly at their former condition. When, in exchange for the 
priory of Hurley, in Berkshire, Henry the Eighth, in 1536, ac- 
quired from the monks of Westminster the manor of Hyde, the 
park, of larger dimensions than we now see it, was fenced in for the 
greater protection of the deer which were preserved there, and 
frequently hunted. In that year a royal proclamation was 
issued, in which it was stated that 44 as the King’s most Royal 
Majesty is desirous to have the games of hare, partridge, 
pheasant, and heron preserved in and about the manor of his 
palace at Westminster, for his own disport and pastime, no 
person, on the pain of imprisonment of their bodies, and further 
punishment at his Majesty’s will and pleasure, is to presume to 
hunt or hawk from the palace of Westminster to St. Giles’ in 
M 2 
