2 INTEODUCTION. 



by tall thick liedg-es studded with an abundance o£ hedgerow 

 timbei'j the elm being- the most numerous tree, and a character- 

 istic feature in the landscape. The intervening" high grounds 

 consist chiefly of arable land with small low hedges and less 

 timber. Woods are nearly absent, but small spinneys are 

 scattered freely over the district. It is a kind of country 

 eminently adapted to the requirements of our smaller birds, 

 the summer migrants finding shelter suitable to their retiring 

 habits in the thick hedges, and the Finches and Buntings 

 having every facility for nesting in summer and a suffi- 

 ciency of arable land to range over for food in winter. 

 The tall hedges too produce an abundant crop of haws 

 and other hedge fruits, attractive to the migratory Thrushes 

 in autitmn and winter ; while the allu\'ial meadows present 

 a vast area of feeding-ground to Wagtails, Pipits, Starlings, 

 Rooks, Crows, etc., as well as some waders, in their partly- 

 flooded condition, and to waterfowl when still more sub- 

 merged. 



In the north-west the country is more open and undulating, 

 with fewer valleys and long gently-rising slopes swelling to 

 rounded hills — the outlying spurs of the Cotswolds. The 

 land, except just in the valleys, is arable, with big stony fields 

 and small hedges, the latter being often replaced by dry stone 

 walls. Hedgerow timber, so abundant over many parts of the 

 county, is scarce here, making the country cold and bleak in 

 winter and extremely hot and dry in summer. Especially 

 about Rollright, on the high ground where stands the well- 

 known Druidical circle, the Rollrich Stones, it is pecu^liarly 

 bleak. The beech, rare in the north, appears here on the lime- 

 stone more commonly. There are, however, warm woods of 

 oak, beech, spruce, and larch here and there — Bruern, Fyfield- 

 Heath and Churchill-Heath Woods, as well as those about 

 Sarsden. 



On the higher corn lands Larks are abundant, and the Corn 

 Bunting finds a congenial home; the heathy edges of the 

 woods are attractive to the Grasshopper Warbler, Whinchat, 

 and Linnet, while in the more sheltered valleys there is no 

 lack of Warblers. 



