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.

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    be regarded as permanently resident in Kensington Gardens, but it is certain that a goodly list might be made of those which have been periodically observed there. Rooks and Jackdaws, from their size, are amongst the most conspicuous. The latter often quit the park for the house-tops, and before the daily traffic has commenced may be seen hovering about the high road, occasionally swoop- ing down to carry off the oats dropped from the nosebag of the cab-horses. There was a time when the Magpie nested in St James’s Park, as did the Raven and Kite in Hyde Park ; but those days have long since passed away, and perhaps no observation of the Magpie in Kensington Gardens has been made, or at least recorded, since Yarrell, in his History of British Birds, wrote that he had himself once counted twenty-three there. This statement, to many persons, may seem almost incredible ; but not only does the good authority for it forbid us to doubt it, but it is a fact well known to ornithologists that magpies in autumn and winter assemble in flocks and roost together in plantations, as many as thirty or forty having been counted at one time. From its general similarity to a Rook, when seen at a distance, the Carrion Crow probably often escapes notice. It is nevertheless a constant frequenter of Kensington Gardens, and in the summer of 1887 a pair had a nest there from which the young were duly hatched. During the time the young were being reared, the old birds might be seen close to the water’s edge foraging for food,
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