7 2 Summer Studies of Birds and Books CHAP. 



discomforts ? I had no wish to prowl about in this 

 osier-bed merely to see what it was like ; and in- 

 deed it was not so very easy to get into, for it was 

 fenced with barbed wire on two sides, and on the 

 other the only entrance was through a thick over- 

 grown hedge, with a wet ditch on the further side. 

 The fact was that I went to see and hear a certain 

 small brown bird, and, if possible, to find its nest ; 

 and thereby hangs a somewhat lengthy tale, which 

 must be told, if you have the patience for it, before 

 I lead you into the labyrinthine recesses of the 

 jungle. 



It is on the 18th of May 1888 that my tale 

 begins a day when the academic precincts of 

 Oxford were unusually quiet and deserted, owing 

 to a cricket match with the Australians. I was 

 entering the Botanic Garden that afternoon, when I 

 heard in a bush, just outside the turnstile, the song 

 of a Eeed Warbler. This was no new thing, for the 

 bird is quite common all round Oxford in suitable 

 places; but what struck me most was, first, that 

 this was not a suitable place, and, secondly, that 

 the song was peculiar for a Eeed Warbler. The 

 bush was just inside a hedge of privet, and there was 

 an apple-tree overhanging it : exactly opposite are 

 the schools of the parish, outside which, at various 

 times in the day, there is the usual shouting and 

 screaming of boys and girls let loose. Now, our 



