NOTES ON LONDON BIRDS 
87 
aground. Leaves which had not met together since they lay 
in the same bud, met again in the dampness; moss that had 
turned to nothing with dryness swelled up, and became soft, 
crisp, green and juicy; and grey lichen that had almost turned 
dry as snufT spread itself out in graceful folds stiffening like silk. 
The convolvuluses let their white cups be filled to the btim, 
clinked together and poured the water at the feet of the nettles ; 
the black snails crawled amiably along and looked appreciatively 
up at the sky. F. M. M. P. 
A ROUNDEL OF RAIN. 
Out of the night of Heavens beetle-browed 
In sheets of silver does the rain take flight ! 
A crash of waters hurled from inky cloud 
Out of the night ! 
.\non the stars steal slowly into sight. 
The midnight skies have doffed their sable shroud. 
And Dian steeps a sleeping world in light. 
In its strange beauty stands the earth avowed. 
Transfigured by the rain ! And then will plight 
Sweet Philomel his troth, and call aloud 
Out of the night ! 
Karsfidd, Torquay. F. B. Doveton. 
NOTES ON LONDON BIRDS IN 1903 . 
N last year’s volume of Nature Notes (p. 89) I 
I referred to the nesting of the black swans in Hyde 
! Park. In April, 1903, another brood was hatched. 
The first intimation I received was the discovery of 
a young bird in down, evidently but a few days old, lying dead 
in Hyde Park on the path by the Serpentine, on April 4. On 
the following day I saw two more cygnets swimming about with 
their parents and a keeper told me that four birds had been 
hatched on April 2, but that only two had survived. Of the 
three survivors from the brood hatched in October, 1902, all 
but one were killed by dogs. 
In June, 1903, a black swan was sitting on a clutch of five 
more eggs near to the fountains in Kensington Gardens ; the nest 
was in a terribly conspicuous position, and had it not been con- 
stantly protected, the contents would have been broken by boys 
at once. One of the five eggs very soon disappeared. On 
