Article December 30, 1922 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from William Jennings Bryan, Edgar Magnin

[From the Times Weekly, London, England]

Steps are being taken to preserve the wild life in the London parks. Lord Crawford, the minister responsible, has appointed a committee, of which Sir Lionel Earle is chairman, and among those who have undertaken to give evidence is Lord Grey of Fallodon. Certain areas of some of the public parks were inclosed for army purposes during the war; and small wild life discovered sanctuary there, with the result that the question of preserving it in future has seriously arisen; and out of its consideration will surely arise the further question how to provide similar sanctuary in all public parks. We only need to meet the birds halfway in their advances toward our friendship. Forty-one years ago the first few gulls came tentatively to London; now they come by hundreds every year. Wild wood-pigeons can be watched much more easily in London than anywhere else in Britain. Magpies, carrion crows, moorhens, coots, great crested grebes and little grebes are all deliberately choosing a town life where they get the chance; and though small animals cannot fly with the birds over the ring of bricks and mortar, they find gaps to slip through. Perhaps no prettier sight in nature has been seen than a little red squirrel turning over the papers in a wire basket in St. James's Park, searching for crumbs!

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