Recreations of a naturalist / [James Edmund Harting].

  • James Edmund Harting
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Recreations of a naturalist / [James Edmund Harting]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    421/465 page 397
    BIRD-LIFE IN KENSINGTON GARDENS To the naturalist who is cooped up in London for many months in the year it is sometimes refresh- ing to take an early morning walk through one of the London parks and study what little bit of nature still remains in the heart of a great city. It is still possible to find spots here and there which are entirely out of sight of houses, and where, walking on green turf and looking upward through the branches of venerable elms or plane trees, one gets a glimpse of country sky, and hears now and then the note of some country bird, a temporary sojourner like oneself in London. Nowhere, perhaps, is this little bit of mis in urbe more striking than in Kensington Gardens. Here may be found some really charming glades, bordered by fine old trees, which in summer cast a grateful shade over the turf below. The enjoyment to be derived from a contemplation of these glades will depend upon the time of year at which we walk there. If we select the season when rooks with noisy “caws” are busy gathering sticks to repair their old nests, and the spring notes of thrushes, blackbirds, and tits fall pleasantly upon the ear, we may fancy ourselves miles away in the country, instead of in the very middle of London. It would be difficult to say how many species of birds may
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