The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-11-24
PLAGUE" OF PIGEONS.

Buildings of the City of London.
 There is a legend extant in one of the Inns of Court. that many years ago two young barristers, who afterward at one time, before briefs came, lived mainly upon pigeons, which they shared at night within the precinct of the inn. One of them may have been the judge, who, until he retired from the bench, always kept in his room at the courts a bag of seed, with which he fed the attendant birdsa kind of penance per- haps for youthful misdemeanors.
 Were furtive stewed pigeons diet in common favor with impecunious juniors, Dr. Collingridge, who periodi- cally makes our flesh creep by the dis coyery of some new danger to health, might not have found it necessary to embark on a crusade against the pigeons of the city. The medical offi- cer estimates that within the limits of the corporation area there are 1000 of these birds. Some one may be inclined to scoff at the pretentious accuracy of this figure. But it is not at all diffi- cult thing to take a census of pigeons if one gives one's mind to it, as Dr. Col- lingridge apparently has, for though they are noninally ownerless and homeless they all have their particular roosting place from which they can Honly be evioted by it's destruction.
 The habit, indeed, seems to be at the root of Dr. Co1lingridge's complaint against them, because owing to the de- nolition of various city churches some of the birds in recent years have had to seek refuge in other buildings, and have chosen private premises, whose owners do not reciprocate this mark of confidence. Presumably there is no fault to be found with the flock which inhabft St Paul's, the Guildhall and the Tower. St Paul's without it's pig cons would be almost as unthinkable as St. Marks without it's kindred f1ocks. And the birds have doubt less sought sanctuary at the Ca thedral of the capital ever since there was cathedral. In the earliest known view of London, drawn by Van der Wyngarde, for Philip of Spain. in 1540 seven birds, presumably pigeons are grouped round the spire of old St. Paul's. This may or may not have been the poetic fancy of the artist, but 1t is certain that directly Wren's great building dominated the city birds be- gan to make it their home.
 The pigeons of the Cathedral at the present day offer an interesting study L1.S lse,4 ft1rr ii tinct colonies of them-the one on the east and the other on the west, "and never the twain shall meet. As far as observation goes, they are as well ] defined and separate as the two houses of convocation, and If a member of one l were to stray into the other he would meet the very unchristian reception. < They may meet in the common foraging ground of the churchyard, where part from the contributions of the public who gather there during the dinner hour, there are generally casual con tributions to be picked up from the horses nose- bags, but the building it. self is well delimited. Nor is it at al l likely that a pigeon from the Guildhal
 or the Tower would be welcomed as g I recruit to either chapter. Greater hospitality might be accorded to a stray immigrant with good credentials For 1t is quite certain that the pigeons of the metropolis, both in and outside the city-apart from the few wood pigeons who make their home in one l of the parks or on the Embankment Iduring the sun1mer-are "homers, ol the descendants of "homers.
 A suggestion may be offered with
 difffdence of pr. Collingridge. Harting I in his Birds of Middlesex,' which is te be found in the Guildhall Library, re- 1 cords that a pair of peregrine falcons for many years frequented the top oi
 St Paul's, where it was supposed they had nest, and he adds, '' gentle.
 man with whom I am acquainted has
 assured me. that friend of his once saw a peregrine strike down a pigeon in London" This is evidence that
 would perhaps, not be accepted in g court of law, but at any rate the pere. =l grine falcon might, as last resort, be
 encouraged to return to St Pauls in or.
 der to prey on the pigeons. #%.i.
 T It may be hoped, at all events, that
 the city fathers will not allow the i'm.
 pression to gea abroad that a city pigeon is an outlaw which any one may