Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-09
COUNTRY IN THE CITY.
Birds and Insects in the Streets of
London.

In London the tame pigeons are wild and
the wild ones tame The descendants of
the rock dove, that have for thousands OF
years been common objects of the poultry
yard. breed in inches behind gargoyles, in
water spouts and on roofs behind parapets
and live a fine, wild life. They all tend to
revert to the blue type, with two black
bars on each wing, and they are probably
as beautiful as the wild stock from which
they sprang. The wood pigeons, on the
other hand, are in London fat, podgy, i'm
mensey greedy birds, not disdaining to
feed from our fingers, and transporting
their unwieldy carcass from one feeding
place to another with difficulty. They may
be seen in Lincon's Inn Fields. literally
sprawling about the trees like Mr.. Pick
wick en- skates Civilization has completely
spoiled them. In the country 1t is fine
sight tc see the wood pigeons cleaving the
blue air at a speed of forty or even sixty
miles an hour, soaring like hawks, or
wheeling in hundreds over a wood that has
been invaded by the fox hounds In Lon
don they are rapidly approximating to the
proportion and lassitude of the late dodo.
1t was recently announced that pair of
robins had been seen in Fountain Court
Temple Though l often perambulate that
locality, l have not yet seen these birds
Upon inQuiring of the gardener l found
that he had been equally unfortunate. He
had not seen robin in the temple for the
last four or five years. The ro5in indeed,
seems to be very scarce in GENITAL London
OF starlings there are a FAM number
They build sometimes on the roofs and in
water spouts with the pigeons, and more
generally in the decayed branch of some
church yard tree. The city does not pro-
duce a flock. only here and there a band
of from half dozen to half score, which
go foraging together wherever fair stretch
of grass can be found Thrushes and
blackbrds are rare, If not extinct, but last
winter | solitary re1WiIP SntVeripp
in the Embankment Gardens. The great
city bird is the sparrow, and he does his
best to fill all other deficiencies in our bird
life.
The variation of plumage among London
sparrows is even more remarkable than
their requirement of new habits. If you
have a hundred acceptances to your picnic
you will scarcely see two birds alike. Some
are OF a smoky blackneSS, others a severe
gray, others bright with orange brown
feathers, others Of a delicate green, others
have the wing bars pronounced to
make you think you see haffinch, others
are streaked like mallards, and others
spotted like thrushes Quite l per cent of
the central London sparrows are blessed
with Waite feathers on parts of the body
where they are not expected to appear on
sparrows.
Insects and creatures of the contiguous
order not unrepreSented in the city.
Blue bottles and black beetles occur and in
Shoe lane is a house where a rare species
of the latter genus is sought by naturalists
from ali over the world. Inc little Vap0rer
moth. which was to be seen a week ago, Is
still fourishing among our plane trees. He
is a bright chestnut red, with just one
white spot about the size of pins head on
each forewing. There is one very good rea-
son why the vaporer should not fall a VIC
tim to what l am convinced Is the worst
enemy of moths in London-the street lamp.
Mrs. Vaporer is wngless grub, and there
fore cannot fly to the alluring light. Four
little stumps. that look like only two,
no more than evidence that the great-great-
grandmother of Mrs. Vaporer had WINGS
and a glance at Mr.. Vaporer will tell us
what they probably were like. The vaporer
flies by day, and If later he chooses to go
and get his wings snged a a street lamp
what does it matter? The cocoon case,
where Mrs. Vaporer dechrysalized and
lived. is beaded over with eggs which will
next year yield their grubs. The larvae of
few other moths l have seen munchng
their green stuff in the gardens of central
London, and in a flap up three flights Of
stairs l came across the chrysalids of a few
garden white butterflies. How they got
there is not quite a mystery. The cater
pillars probably crawled out of the cabbage
sent upstairs to be cooked.