INTEODUCTION. 9 



aquatic visitors mentioned in this work liave been procured; 

 here in winter, when the meadow is wholly or partially flooded, 

 as it very frequently is, numbers of wildfowl and other birds 

 — Ducks, Teal, Herons, and Peewits, besides countless Rooks, 

 Starling's, Fieldfares, and Red^ang-s, are often to be seen; 

 occasionally rarer visitors, such as Wild-g-eese, Curlews, and 

 Gulls may be observed. 



Our water-meadows in the larger valleys often afford fine 

 sig-hts of wildfowl in winter. At the time of big floods the 

 lower parts of the valleys form a series of shallow lakes, out of 

 which peep patches of higher ground, the upper parts of the 

 hedges, and the heads of the pollard willows. Teams of Duck 

 and coils of Teal dot the water, or wing their way high over- 

 head, great flocks of Peewits mingled with Crows, Rooks, 

 clouds of Starlings, Fieldfares, and Redwangs feed along the 

 flood edge, where here and there the tall, grey form of the 

 Heron may be seen. The Common and Jack Snipe too are 

 found, and sometimes the Wigeon and Golden Plover. 



Oxfordshire can boast of more than forty Parks and park- 

 like grounds. Some fifteen of the former contain upwards of 

 two hundred acres. By far the largest of these is Blenheim, 

 comprising some 3700 acres, and not less than ten miles in 

 circimiference, which was enclosed by Henry I, and is said by 

 Rouse, the historian, to have been the first walled park in Eng- 

 land. Next in size comes Nuneham, 1200 acres, extending 

 for some distance along the east bank of the Isis. Middleton 

 Stoney comprises about 600 acres; Cornbury, adjoining Wych- 

 wood Forest, some 500; while Ditchley, He}i:hrop, and 

 Caversham are each not less than 300 acres in extent. 



Heavily and beautifully timbered for the most part, with 

 rich green undulating lawns, little secluded spinneys, and 

 frequent adjacent woods, these parks possess qualifications 

 eminently adapted to meet the requirements of om- woodland 

 birds. The fine sheets of ornamental water also, present in 

 some of them, are attractive to waterfowl, not only those 

 species which breed here, but others which visit us during the 

 winter months. 



Oxfordshire was in former times much more wooded than 



