BIRDS IN LONDON.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Having read the interesting accounts of unusual bird- visitors in London, I offer yet one more letter which may interest the readers of your valuable paper. Brixton, though a suburb of London, is within the four-miles' radius from Charing Cross, and we are surrounded by streets; also a noisy railway runs at the end of our garden. Notwithstanding these dis- turbing elements, for several successive autumns we have observed the regular visits of the cuckoo. We think he comes into our garden for the numerous caterpillars which infest the wild plants which we grow, and this autumn he paid us an unusually late visit, coming in the early part of Sep- tember ! Last December, when the snow was thick on the ground, we saw a moorhen stalking along the garden-path. He came down to the back-door of the house. Now, we are not near any water where such a bird would be likely to live, but as we kept two geese in a pen in the garden, we think their cry may have attracted the moorhen. The following is a list of the different birds we have noticed in our narrow " London garden :"—Whitethroat, wood-warbler, wren, thrush, titmice, rook, blackbird, starling, coletit, hedgesparrow, robin, linnet, chaffinch, and of course the misjudged sparrows in abundance.
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