46 
NOTES ON LONDON BIRDS IN 1896. 
ONDON thrushes usually sing on New Year’s Day; I 
heard several in Kensington Gardens on January i, 
1896. Two linnets flew over Hyde Park on January 
3, and the only skylark which I noticed during this 
month was flying over Hyde Park on the 4th. 
Towards the end of the month a fine white swan, which had 
lately been frequenting the Serpentine, appeared to be making 
advances of an amatory nature towards the black Australian 
swan, but he soon got tired of his “ dusky queen ” and flew off 
before the beginning of February. Where he went to I do not 
know ; but one of the keepers told me that the bird had come 
from St. James’ Park, so he probably returned thither. 
On February 6 I saw an adult lesser black-backed gull over the 
Thames near the Temple. Mr. Rushen (Nature Notes, 1896, 
p. 56) considers it as common on the Thames as the common 
gull or kittiwake ; but this has not been my experience, though I 
have often seen immature birds which may have been the young 
of either this species or of the herring gull, which they very 
closely resemble. With regard to Mr. Ruslien’s note above re- 
ferred to, I have no doubt he is right in his opinion that Battersea 
Park is a better hunting ground for wild birds than the West 
End parks; it is less closely surrounded by buildings, its position 
beside the Thames makes it much more likely to attract water 
birds, and the smaller species which pass up the river no doubt 
frequently take a rest there. 
The early part of 1896 was so warm that there were com- 
paratively few sea-gulls on the Serpentine, and those which 1 
saw seemed all to be of the black-headed species; but a fair 
number were to be seen during January and February between 
Blackfriars and Waterloo Bridges, many of them being adult 
herring gulls. There was a considerable influx of black-headed 
gulls during the first week in March, but the invasion did not 
last long. 
On March 6 I heard a greenfinch near the Magazine in 
Hyde Park. On March 5 I observed a chaffinch in Lincoln’s 
Inn Fields, on the 8th one was singing in Kensington Gardens, 
and on the loth I heard one in Green Park. 
The island in the Serpentine was much used during the 
winter 1895-6 as a roosting-place for starlings and woodpigeons. 
'I'he starlings used to arrive in hundreds shortly after sunset, 
flying in companies towards the island, usually from the west, 
until they f;ot directly above it. They then dived down almost 
perpendicularly into the trees and shrubs. The woodpigeons, 
about fifty in number, had usually already taken up their 
position for the night before the arrival of the starlings. Both 
species continued to frequent the island throughout the summer, 
but in smaller numbers. Starlings seem fond of these metro- 
