THREE BIRD GUESTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 27, 1 February 1936, Page 20

THREE BIRD GUESTS

As Nature was to be so well represented in the Lord Mayor's Show this year it occurred to three starlings to represent Mother Nature at the Guildhall on the day before. They saw Sir Percy Vincent sworn into his high office, states the "Children's Newspaper." They walked on the gorgeous carpet and hopped on the backs of the. aldermen's chairs. One of them hopped on to the head of the senior sheriff, and then, being waved from there, took up its post on the oak screen to watch the old Lord Mayor step down and the new Lord Mayor step up. To get a better view it flew across to a chandelier, and then improved its chance by perching on a wand held by a committee man. All the gorgeous ceremony the starling saw from there until, bolder and bolder, and being now observed by all observers, who were watching the bird instead of the ceremony, it hopped on to the very head of the City Marshal standing behind the Lord Mayor's chair. It watched the Lord Mayor sign the document in which he pledges himself to accept £12,500 to cover all fees: He perched on the chair, And he peered in the face of his lordship's grace With a satisfied look as if he would say, We two are the greatest folk here today. Then, having seen this safely through, the starling took flight and sought the Sword Bearer's Cap of Maintenance. There it found no firm foothold, however, and, a little tired at last of all the pomp: In and out of the motley rout The little starling kept hopping about until It flew to the end of the hall and was picked up and sent out into the rain. A; great tale the starlings tell every night in tjie eaves about Trafalgar Square; but the Lord Mayor's starling must become their Poet Laureate, for he has a song to sing of sights no starling ever saw before.