B INTRODUCTIOX. 



every now and then one of the latter would take fright and 

 scuttle into the reeds. The shallow water was occupied by 

 numerous Coots of all ages, from the adults to the young not 

 yet out of down ; out in the deeper water were a few Wild- 

 ducks and one or two Crested Grebes, and four small ducks, 

 evidently Teal, rose from some part of the water and flew 

 past, on a boy showing himself from one of the fields at the 

 Claydon corner. This of course roused all the fowl, and sent 

 the Herons off in a body; the latter, after flying round for 

 some time, uttering loud croaks, perched on the tops of some 

 neighbouring trees. A Kingfisher perched on the old wooden 

 piles out in the water, and they were occupied later by a 

 Sandpiper. 4th, 6.45 a.m., a bright morning. Eight Herons 

 feeding about the mud. One was wading in a pool of water 

 up to his body; bending forward, with neck drawn in and 

 bent, he suddenly darted out his beak and secured a prey, 

 which he bolted ; this was repeated several times. A Green 

 Sandpiper, which had been feeding along the mud edge, rose 

 and circled round for some time, higher than the tops of the 

 highest elms, calling loudly, tul-a-wee<oee tul-a-ioee-wee. I was 

 able to make certain that the little ducks seen the day before 

 yesterday were Teal. After I had watched them for awhile on 

 the sheltered side of the water, now feeding along the edge, 

 now resting in that very upright attitude affected by them, or 

 taking short flights, they rose and flew across the corner of 

 the pool, alighting, to the number of six in the ' spring/ in 

 some wet oozy mud too thick for them to swim but too soft 

 to support their feet, when they paddled about feeding and 

 ' guzzling ' in great contentment. 



The Grey Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, and occasionally the 

 Snipe, the Tufted Duck, Pochard, and Golden Eye are autumn 

 and winter visitors to the pool, together with Wild-ducks 

 and Teal in increased numbers ; various rare water -birds, and 

 even wanderers from the coast, have also been observed or 

 procured there from time to time. 



The large, flat, unenclosed meadow lying along the banks of 

 the Isis north of Oxford, and known as Port Meadow, is noted 

 as the spot where a large proportion of the rarer wading and 



