32 
NATURE NOTES. 
of the quarrel, and unless a speedy agreement be come to, 
Alexandra Park will ere long be such in name only, and another 
be added to the host of mocking phantoms of “ parks,” “ groves,” 
and “ gardens,” with which the metropolis abounds. 
The question as to what use should be made of the palace — 
in the event of the park becoming, as it ought, public property — 
was largely diseased at one time. We venture to hint, if the 
idea be not altogether wild and chimerical, that if no good use 
can be made of it, its demolition and sale of the materials, not- 
withstanding the considerable expenses attendant in bringing 
this about, w’ould effect some return for the purchase money 
paid down for the whole estate. Its disappearance would be no 
loss whatever to the landscape. Vast and ungainly^ it must 
ever remain such till it crumbles into ruin. But the park, which 
is nature’s work, is imperishable if left alone ; and will increase 
in beauty year by year. Therefore, though it be at a great cost, 
let nature have her due. 
Archibald Clarke. 
FURTHER NOTES ON LONDON BIRDS. 
HE following notes bring my former contributions on 
London birds up to date, i.e., to the end of 1893. 
The kingfisher, seen on November 18, 1892, has 
already been noticed [N.N., 1893, P- 
During the frost, at the beginning of January, 1893, there 
were hundreds of gulls flying over the Thames between Black- 
friars and Westminster, and several were seen over the Serpen- 
tine. They almost all belonged to the black-headed species — 
Lavus ridibundus. Even when people were skating on the Ser- 
pentine, some wood- pigeons were “ cooing ” overhead, and by 
January 21, I saw them indulging in their spring flight, in 
which they rise almost perpendicularly by a few sharp strokes of 
the wings, which clash over their heads, and then sail down 
with their wings outspread and motionless. Hedge-sparrows 
were singing in Hyde Park on the 19th, and by the 22nd the 
thrushes were almost in full song. I saw a flock of lapwings on 
March 4, flying over Kensington Gardens at a great height. 
By far the most interesting event of the year was the return 
of the rooks to the gardens, where quite a large colony estab- 
lished itself by the broad walk, near Kensington Palace, and 
built no less than fifteen nests. The birds, which formed the 
colony in Connaught Square, had apparently given up all inten- 
tion of nesting there, until March ii, when they suddenly 
appeared, and set to work building and repairing the old nests 
as hard as they could. Early in April there were eight nests, of 
which six were apparently inhabited. There were two rooks’ 
nests in the tree in Albion Street. 
