NOTES ON LONDON BIRDS IN 1895 . 
31 
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NOTES ON LONDON BIRDS IN 1895 . 
N January ii, I noticed a fieldfare flying over Hyde 
Park. On the 22nd, a dull day shortly before the great 
frost set in, which lasted till the end of the third 
week of February, hundreds of skylarks passed over 
London; during the afternoon they were continously passing 
over Lincoln’s Inn in parties of from ten to fifty, flying not more 
than twenty feet above the chimneys. They all appeared to 
be flying almost due west, as is usually the case before we have 
bad weather in town. TheFjVW for February 2, 1895, contained 
a note that a gardener at Highgate saw “ a very large flock of 
snowbuntings ” on this very day, which passed “ from N.N.E. to 
W.” I have very little doubt that the birds in question were 
really skylarks ; the under-surfaces of their bodies, even in the 
dim light of the afternoon, appeared very white against the 
dirty, foggy sky over-head. 
\\'hen the cold weather had fairly set in, seagulls came up 
the Thames in large numbers. Last year (Nature Notes, 1895, 
p. 49), I drew attention to the curious influx of gulls during the 
spring of 1894, but the scene from the Thames Embankment in 
February, 1895, quite put previous invasions into the shade. At 
one period, when the river was almost blocked with masses 
of floating ice and snow, the gulls were to be seen in thousands, 
and the river presented quite an Arctic appearance. The 
wretched birds were very hungry, and would take bread from the 
hand. It was said that some “sportsmen,” who could not let 
such a golden opportunity slip, fished for the starving birds with 
some success, with a hook and line ! Quite ninety-nine out of ever)' 
hundred of these birds were black-headed gulls, but I also saw a 
few kittiwakes, herring and common gulls among them. During 
the cold weather various species besides gulls were reported. 
Two eagles were said to have been seen near Westminster ; 
and a stormy petrel was caught in a yard at Blackwall. My 
sister believes she saw two terns near Westminster Bridge on 
February 14 ; and Mr. Harting records the fact that he saw 
a little gull by the Thames Embankment on the 1 5th {Zoologist, 
1895, p. no). After the frost broke the gulls gradually left, but 
a considerable number were to be seen in Hyde Park and St. 
James’s Park for some time later. 
