32, Oxford: Autumn and Winter. 



Oxford, every one can observe for themselves, and 

 of Sparrows I shall have something to say in the 

 next chapter ; but let me remind my young 

 readers that every bird is worth noticing, whether 

 it be the rarest or the commonest. My sister 

 laughs at me, because the other day she found an 

 old copy of White's Selborne belonging to me, 

 wherein was inscribed on the page devoted to 

 the Rook, in puerile handwriting, the following 

 annotation : " Common about Bath " (where I was 

 then at school). But I tell her that it was a 

 strictly accurate scientific observation ; and I only 

 wish that I had followed it up with others equally 

 unimpeachable. 



But more out-of-the-way birds will sometimes 

 come to Oxford, and I have seen a Kestrel trying 

 to hover in a high wind over Christchurch 

 Meadow, and a Heron sitting on the old gate- 

 post in the middle of the field. Herons are often 

 to be seen by the river-bank in Port Meadow ; 

 and it was here, some years ago, that Mr. W. T. 

 Arnold, of University College, was witness of an 

 extraordinary attack made by a party of three on 

 some small birds. Port Meadow constantly en- 



