72 
NATURE NOTES 
breeding season commit great havoc among the eggs and young 
birds. The kingfisher is seen once or twice a year, but generally 
along the banks of the New River. Before the park was 
drained, snipe were often flushed on the low-lying ground in the 
winter months. Goldfinches, linnets, greenfinches, skylarks and 
yellow-hammers are attracted in severe weather by the food then 
provided for the birds by the London County Council. At such 
times the redwing and fieldfare are generally to be found. The 
cuckoo comes every spring, and is generally preceded by the 
wrj’neck. Inasmuch as young cuckoos have been found in the 
neighbourhood, it may be assumed that they have been reared 
not very far away. In the twilight of the summer evenings a 
glimpse of the barn owl may sometimes be obtained, noiselessly 
flitting through the trees, from whence the mystic churr of the 
nightjar has been heard. The house martin is plentiful from 
May to September. In 1895, under the eaves of four consecu- 
tive houses in an adjacent road, there were no less than eleven 
nests. Sand martins generally appear in numbers before migra- 
tion. Swallows have nested for the last two years at the old 
mansion in the park. The swift is, of course, less common. 
Not infrequently the kestrel and sparrow hawk are observed, 
and four years ago a buzzard was recorded. During the same 
year a jay appeared. Annually in spring the chiff-chaff, white- 
throat, lesser whitethroat, wheatear, blackcap, sedge-warbler, 
garden-warbler, willow wren, stock-dove, bullflnch and sand- 
piper ; in summer the redstart, tree pipit, meadow pipit and pied 
and yellow wagtails, and in winter the tree creeper and the grey 
wagtail usually visit the place. 
Another favourite resort of birds in the district is Abney 
Park Cemetery, where quietude reigns supreme, and the bird- 
life is in many respects identical. 
Barely a stone’s throw beyond Clissold Park are the exten- 
sive works of the New River Company. From its conspicuous 
position the quasi-castellated pumping station forms quite a land- 
mark. Beside it, on the one hand, are huge but bare filtering 
beds, extending nearly to Finsbury Park ; on the other are 
the reservoirs stretching away to Stamford Hill. These two 
magnificent sheets of water, which stand very high and in parts 
are eighteen feet deep, were completed in 1833. In their early 
years, surrounded b}^ green fields, they were the resort of the 
rarest waterfowl, including even the great crested grebe, the red- 
throated diver and the cormorant — several specimens of the 
latter having been taken here. Every winter wild duck haunt 
the spot, and during continued frosts remain for weeks together. 
At these times skeins of wild geese fly across, but at such a 
height that it is impossible to distinguish the species. In 
December, 1892, a scaup-duck was recognised, but quickly went 
away. Herons from Wanstead Park are constant visitors in the 
summer months. Two or three together may often be perceived 
soon after daybreak gravely stalking on the shallows. The 
