A Paradise of Birds. 



them from some of the pleasures of the country. 

 And I hold it to be an unquestioned fact, that 

 the direction of children's attention to natural 

 objects is one of the most valuable processes in 

 education. When these children, or at least the 

 boys among them, go away to their respective 

 public schools, they will find themselves in the 

 grip of a system of compulsory game-playing 

 which will effectually prevent any attempt at 

 patient observation. There is doubtless very 

 much to be said for this system, if it be applied, 

 like a strong remedy, with real discriminating 

 care ; but the fact is beyond question, that it is 

 doing a great deal to undermine and destroy 

 some of the Englishman's most valuable habits 

 and characteristics, and among others, his acute- 

 ness of observation, in which, in his natural state, 

 he excels all other nationalities. It is all the more 

 necessary that we should teach our children, before 

 they leave home, some of the simplest and most 

 obvious lessons of natural history. 



So in the following pages it will be partly my 

 object to write of the Oxford birds in such a way 

 that any one of any age may be able to recognize 



