Little attention was paid to the wild fowl in the Park after that date, until the Prince Consort took an interest in them. In 1841 he became the Patron of the Ornithological Society, and the cottage on Duck Island was built for the Bird-keeper. For some thirty years the Society flourished, and kept up the supply and cared for the birds in the Park. In 1867, however, their numbers were greatly reduced, and the Society sold their collection of birds to H.M. Office of Works, which has since then had them under its charge. It is pleasant to know that the old tradition of the wild fowl in that part of the Park is maintained. Although the duck pond of King Charles’s time must have looked somewhat different from that of to-day, the birds can be made as much at home, and they nest peacefully on the modern Duck Island, its direct descendant. Moorhens and dabchicks, or little grebes, have for the last twenty years nested in the Park. They used to leave for the breeding season, but since 1883, when the first moorhen nested, they have gradually taken to remaining contentedly all through the year, and bring up their young there. Birds seem to choose the Park to rest in, and many migratory ones have been noticed. Kingfishers have recently been let out near the site of the ancient bird cages, in the hope that they may carry on the historic association. [Illustration: CROCUSES IN EARLY SPRING, ST. JAMES’S PARK] The cows, which were a part of ancient history, as were the birds, have not been so fortunate. Although a newspaper clamour in defence of the cows was raised, the few remaining were finally banished in 1905, when the alterations in the Mall were made. These survivals standing by the dusty stalls could scarcely be called picturesque; and although interest undoubtedly was attached to them as venerable survivals of an old custom, they hardly suggested the rural simplicity of the days when cows were really pastured in the Park. For over two centuries grazing was let to the milk-women who sold milk at the end of the Park, near Whitehall. They paid half-a-crown a week, and after 1772 three shillings a week, for the right to feed cattle in the Park. A Frenchman, describing St. James’s at that time, is astonished at its rural aspect. “In that part nearest Westminster nature appears in all its rustic simplicity; it is a meadow, regularly intersected and watered by canals, and with willows and poplars, without any regard to order. On this side, as well as on that towards St. James’s Palace, the grass plots are covered with cows and deer, where they graze or chew the cud, some standing, some lying down upon the grass.... Agreeably to this rural simplicity, most of these cows are driven, about noon and evening, to the gate which leads from the Park to the quarter of Whitehall. Tied to posts at the extremity of the grass plots, they swill passengers with their milk, which, being drawn from their udders on the spot, is served, with all cleanliness peculiar