mTRODUCTION. j5 



grassy lawns, its old trees, rivers, meadows, and slirubberied 

 ' Parks,' is attractive to many birds. Around her walls the 

 scenery is very diversified, low-lying meadows contrasting 

 with higher corn lands and the elevations at Headington and 

 Shotover Hill. The latter still retains much of its original 

 character, one side presenting a rough and broken slope, 

 clothed with bushes, gorse, and bracken. 



To the east and north-east of Oxford the country is 

 wooded ; beyond, in the latter direction, lie ' the deep plains 

 of Otmore, often overflowed in winter' (Camden). Otmoor 

 proper, a great low-lying tract, through which meanders the 

 sluggish river Ray, is represented on Bryant's map of Oxon, 

 made from a survey taken in 1823, as a wide stretch of com- 

 mon land, crossed only by the remains of an ancient Roman 

 road and the bridle track from Horton to Studely and Charl- 

 ton. It was enclosed about the year 1837, and, though never 

 properly drained, a system of large ditches has rendered it 

 considerably drier than it formerly was. At the present day 

 what is known as Otmoor consists of some two or three 

 thousand acres, which (save in exceptionally dry seasons) are 

 under water all winter, often also in simimer, and are never 

 very dry at any time (T. W. Falcon in lit.). Large numbers 

 of wildfowl used to resort here in winter, affording employ- 

 ment to professional gmmers, a few of whom still remain. 

 Even nowadays Otmoor is annually visited by considerable 

 quantities of fowl, which in some seasons are even abundant, 

 and many ducks of various kinds, and other birds, are shot 

 there, and sent up to Oxford market. 



At Boarstall, situated only about half a mile over the 

 borders of the county, in Buckinghamshire, south-west of 

 Piddington, there is an old-established decoy. The pond, 

 about two acres in extent, is in the middle of a small wood, 

 and is furnished with four pipes. When the Rev. B. D'O. 

 Aplin visited the decoy he was informed that about three 

 thousand ducks were taken in the season of 1882-3; they 

 were chiefly Mallard and Teal, with a few Wigeon, Shoveller, 

 and Pintail. All the fowl taken at Boarstall are doubtless 

 drawn from the extensive feeding- ground of Otmoor. 



