NOTES ON LONDON BIRDS 
1 1 1 
to the north-east, and the Borrowdale and Glaramara hills 
to the south-east, are very beautiful. This was one of Robert 
Southey’s favourite view points ; and few men who have lived in 
the Keswick Vale had sounder judgment as to what constituted 
a beautiful view chan he. 
Doubtless the sum, ;^7,ooo, which it will be necessary to 
raise seems a large one, but there are ;^2,ooo worth of wood 
growing upon the estate, and when one considers that there 
is only one Derwentwater, and that the property may be looked 
upon as having more than agricultural value, the sum which the 
owner asks for his io8 acres does not seem exorbitant ; but of 
the necessary ^7,000 about £^1,500 were raised before the appeal 
was made to the public. Meetings are to be held, by the kind- 
ness of the Lord Mayor, both in Manchester and in Liverpool 
in June. Six months are allowed us for our effort to raise the 
the money. It would be a great matter if all readers of 
this Magazine would do their best to obtain contributions, 
which would be gratefully acknowledged by the Secretary of 
the National Trust, i, Great College Street, Westminster; by 
Sir Robert Hunter, Reform Club, Pall Mall, W. ; by Miss 
Octavia Hill, 190, Marylebone Road, N.W. ; or by myself, 
Hon. Secretary of the National Trust, Canon Rawnsley, 
Crosthwaite Vicarage, Keswick. 
NOTES ON LONDON BIRDS IN 1900 . 
IRDS seem rather fond of surprising human beings by 
turning up in unexpected places. On January 4, when 
I arrived at my office in the morning, I was delighted 
' at hearing the song of a robin from a neighbouring 
roof although there was no garden near. A more appropriate 
occasion could not have been found for the performance, as it 
was my birthday, — a day upon which I make a point of “ taking 
things easy” and enjoying life. This robin stayed for two or 
three days in the same place, greeting me each morning with a 
song. His departure was a source of regret ; for it is a great 
thing to be brightly greeted — even by an animal. 
Early on January 8, a man was “ thinning” the ducks in the 
Serpentine, presumably by direction of the authorities, but I 
observed that in his zeal for sport he had secured a coot for his 
bag. On the 14th, a flock of redwings was feeding in Kensing- 
ton Gardens between Lancaster Gate and the Round Pond. On 
February 3, snow was lying in Hyde Park and flocks of larks, as 
is usual in hard weather, were to be seen passing overhead from 
the north and east ; but, in spite of the cold, w’oodpigeons were 
“cooing” as ardently as if the leaves were on the trees. I 
observed a very exhausted fieldfare in Hyde Park on the loth of 
this month. About this date starlings collected every evening 
