SELBORNIANA 
185 
existence of some of which in London at all might well come as 
a surprise to the average Cockney. Many, for instance, whose 
London bird-lore extends little farther than to recognise the 
blackbird, the thrush, the starling, the robin, the lark and the 
swallow, may be interested to find the “ buzzard and honey 
buzzard ” officially recognised by the County Council as quite 
possible London visitors. 
Then there is our smallest hawk — known as the “ hobby ” — 
kingfisher, the woodpecker, the merlin, the osprey, the owl, the 
shrike, the “bearded tit, or reed-pheasant,” the “landrail, or 
corncrake,” the night jar, the “ wry-neck, or cuckoo’s mate, or 
snake-bird,” and so on and so on. 
This is not all. So that there shall be no mistake about the 
scope of the edict, certain parishes are enumerated where the 
taking of wild birds in general is prohibited on Sundays, but 
permitted during the week. The names of some of these are 
occasionally pretty enough, but the reality sometimes bears 
a strange relation to the possibility of present-day bird-catching. 
Thus the dweller in St. Botolph’s, Aldgate, is somewhat 
lantalisingly informed that he may catch there as many yellow- 
hammers or whip-poor-wills as he can during the six days, but 
on the Sabbath he must forbear ! So, too, with the “ Hamlet 
of Mile End Old Town,” Saffron Hill, the “ Hamlet of Rat- 
cliff,” St. Saviour, “ including the Liberty of the Clink,” and 
certain other quarters where one fancies the gaol-bird would be, 
nowadays the most characteristic, if not the only ornithological 
treasure. 
With all this, however, as a Daily Chronicle representative 
learnt yesterday in a talk with Mr. Wilfred Webb, hon. sec. 
of the Selborne Society, nothing could be more necessary from 
one point of view, and hopeful from another, than this latest 
charter of the London birds. 
“Naturally the list would surprise the man in the street,” 
said Mr. Webb, “ but I assure you there are very few birds on 
the Council’s list that are not comparatively common visitors to 
London. Certainly none of them are impossible. The rarest, 
perhaps, is the buzzard — which is seldom seen in England at all. 
But still, it may always turn up somewhere, and if it did so in 
London it would probably be shot immediately, without some 
such protection. 
“ As for the rest, you would be amazed how many of them 
are to be seen constantly by anyone who takes the trouble to 
watch. As you know, the nightingale sings still within the four- 
mile radius at Hampstead ; sedge-warblers are heard again and 
again in the London parks, as also chaffinches, gold-finches, 
tits, flycatchers, white-throats, stonechats, redstarts, wrens, and 
many another of the Council’s protegees. 
“ The wood-pigeons, by the way — which I notice are not 
protected — are, if anything, increasing in numbers, in places like 
Kensington Gardens, and only the other day I saw a wild 
dabchick in St. James’s Park. 
