TNTEODUCTION. 13 



low, but never dry, and their banks allow for a considerable 

 rise in the level of the water during* winter floods. In long"- 

 continued wet weather, and when a heavy fall of rain or the 

 rapid thawing- of snow brings down a rush of water from the 

 uplands, the meadows along most of our streams are liable to 

 become flooded, often to a considerable extent and with great 

 suddenness and rapidity. 



Ornamental water is present in several of the parks, but 

 the only large sheet is the lake at Blenheim (250 acres). 

 Clattercote Resei'voir is about twenty acres, and Tusmore, 

 Kirtlington, Sarsden, and several other parks are embellished 

 with considerable pools. 



The climate of Oxfordshire is rather dry, and cold in 

 winter, especially on the bleak, treeless uplands, which in 

 summer are often extremely hot. 



An interesting account of the topography of the county, 

 from a botanist's point of view, with valuable details of the 

 geology, drainage, and meteorology, will be found in the 

 introduction to Mr. G. Claridge Druee's very complete Flora 

 of Oxford shire. 



The ornithological literature of Oxfordshire, so far as I 

 have been able to trace it, is not extensive, but dates back to 

 the latter part of the seventeenth century. ' Oxfordshire,' 

 writes Camden in 1586, ^abounds with all sorts of game 

 both for hunting and hawking; ' but when Childrey in 1661 

 brought out his '■Britannia Baconica,' or the Natural Rarities 

 of Bnglancl and Wales, in which work he appears to have 

 collated all the published accounts of the natural history 

 of each county, he dismissed Oxon in a few lines, making no 

 mention of its zoology, and it is not until 1677 that the 

 ornithology of the county seems to have received any atten- 

 tion. In that year appeared The Natural History of Oxford- 

 shire, by Robert Plot, a folio work dedicated to Charles II. 

 Chapter vii, in which the author treats ' Of Biaites,' contains 

 a few notes upon birds, which will be quoted mider the heads 

 of the several species to which they refer. A second edition 

 appeared in 1705. Dr. Plot was elected one of the Secretaries 

 of the Royal Society in 1681. He was a friend of Pepys and 



