SOME HAMPSTEAD BIRDS.
{To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sra,—Having tried for many years, and owing to the stupidity* of gamekeepers always failed, to hear in a small Suffolk village the hoot of the brown owl, once so common there, it was a real pleasure to be awakened the other night by one of these birds on the elms at the top of Fitzjohn's Avenue-. Hampstead has changed much since the advent of the Tube, and as I listened to our friend on the elms I wondered if a pair of sedge warblers still breed on the low pond at Golders Green, though I rather fancy this beautiful little home was marked "To Let" when one of these birds was found dead on that roof of the Agricultural Hall, Islington, in 1906. Are the fields of Parliament Hill still sprinkled for a day or two in spring and autumn with the little wheatears P Is the Viaduct Pond ever visited by a stray kingfisher in the early mornings, the Leg of Mutton by flocks of wagtails at sundown in. winter ? Can those who take a winter walk to the Garden Suburb still flush a snipe in the low meadows of North End or a partridge to skim the golf links to the Finchley Meadows. Standing by,the White Stone Pond, looking west, I am told that if I am lucky, particularly on Sunday, one may catch, the sight of a small object in the sky which the paper nett day will describe as a Bleriot monoplane or something equally beloved of the modern world, but I wonder if one can still see in the evening time that stately fisherman, the heron, pass. across to the hills, finishing a day at the Hampstead ponds
with a visit to Hendon or Ruislip water.—I am, Sir, &o., .
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