38 
NATURE NOTES 
The nest was taken in 1894, by the late Major-General Maistre, from the bank 
of a stream near Bloxham, in Oxfordshire. A theory has been suggested that 
the birds intentionally made the lid as a protection against the weather. But, in 
the first place, it is contrary to all experience of the mental processes of birds 
that so large and sudden an advance in their architecture would be possible. In 
the second place, if such were possible, there is evidence that soon after the nest 
was found the “lid” stood upright, and would not remain shut when pressed down, 
thus being useless for protective purposes. The present ease in the hinge would 
then be due to frequent openings and shuttings, or relaxation in tension of the 
material from other causes. In the third place it is at least consistent with 
the appearance that the “ lid” is only a layer of the horsehair lining which got 
loose and sprang up before the eggs were laid. This last is the explanation of Mr. 
O. V. Aplin. The nest may suggest speculations as to accidental variations in 
nests, which are favourable to the species, being factors in the evolutionary 
process as well as variations due to the idiosyncrasies of the builders. Birds are 
to a certain extent imitative in their nest building, and seem to be able to profit by 
experience. 
London Birds. — Owls, I should imagine, still scarce though they be, must 
be increasing in the London vicinity, and if so this is a matter for great congratu- 
lation on the part of Selbornians. Mr. Macpherson tells of seeing an owl on 
two occasions almost in the heart of London, but does not mention the species. 
I myself saw a barn owl less than five hundred yards from Barnes station in 
August, and a friend, walking through Wimbledon Park, saw a tawny owl during 
the same month. Visiting Wanstead Park in September, I noticed a kestrel 
hovering over the big lake, but a few owls must be sadly needed there. Standing 
perfectly quiet among the bushes near the refreshment house, I was in a few 
minutes almost surrounded by rats, quite a dozen of them, all ages and sizes. 
The place seemed to swarm with them then, but perhaps by now a chance owl 
has discovered this happy hunting ground and thinned them out a little. The 
wren, as Mr. Macpherson remarks, is not a common London bird, still at times I 
find it fairly numerous at Battersea, notably all through the month of April, 1897, 
when several could be often heard singing at once ; later in the year, on October 
25, I heard one in Kennington Park. The black-headed gull, except for just the 
breeding season, is now almost a resident Londoner ; besides his usual visit from 
September to April together with the lesser black-back, herring and common 
gulls, I noted a few during the intervening months in rather unlikely places, once 
over Dulwich Park, August 7, and again near the Oval station in the Kennington 
Park Road. Some black-headed gulls assume the breeding plumage very early in 
the season, while others, both old and young, so late as the middle of April were 
still without the brown hood. The lesser grebe successfully hatched off several 
broods in St. James’s, but contrary to my expectations Battersea Park was almost 
deserted by them throughout the summer. The reed warbler nested in the latter 
park as usual, and the common and lesser whitethroats, willow warbler, blackcap 
and chiff-chaff were very frequent visitors, but excepting perhaps the first named, 
did not nest there. In previous notes I have called attention to the tract of 
foreshore left uncovered by the tide outside Battersea Park as a favourite haunt of 
various birds — starlings, crows, thrushes, pipits, wagtails, & c. Going, as usual, 
to give an eye to it early on the morning of August 10, I was delighted to see 
three common sandpipers apparently quite at home, whistling cheerily, and 
running up and down near the edge of the water, giving the characteristic flirt of 
the tail at frequent intervals. Sometimes they flew across to the mud flats 
opposite, but the park side evidently attracted them most, for after a few minutes 
they always came back. That same morning the river at low tide was so remark- 
ably clear and still that I could see dozens of good sized fish, probably roach, in 
the shallows near the shore. The fish, for all one can tell by the eye, may be 
there the greater part of the year, but it is seldom the river is clear enough to see 
them. Hardly an October passes now without the grey wagtail showing itself in 
one or the other of the London parks. I saw the first arrival at Battersea this 
autumn, a beautiful cock bird, as early as September 12. The London sparrow 
is notably always ready for anything eatable that turns up, no matter what it be. 
I was watching a vulture feeding at the Zoo on November 1, when it chanced to 
