88 Birds of an Oxford College 



The plumage of the birds which haunt the quad- 

 rangle displays a peculiar harmony of colour with 

 the grave tints of the ancient roofs and walls. In 

 the elm-groves and by the stream-sides without, 

 even the temperate genius of nature under the 

 English skies spares touches of brilliant colour for 

 the kingfishers that flash by the blossoming haw- 

 thorns, and the redstarts and woodpeckers in the 

 willows that border the shining hay fields. But 

 in the college quadrangle all birds are tempered to 

 some clean but sober livery of black, or brown, or 

 slaty grey, that blends in soft gradations with the cog- 

 nate tints of the crumbling stone. A few yards outside 

 the gate the blue titmouse rings its chime in the bare 

 laburnums, and the great titmouse gleams in the 

 elm boughs with its yellow breast, as it utters the 

 two sharp notes which call up the early spring. 

 Both these birds nest not infrequently in Oxford 

 gardens ; but the only member of their tribe which 

 is familiar in the grey stone quadrangle is the sober 

 cole-tit, with its body and wings of grey, and black 

 and white markings on the head. The cole tit has 

 all the gymnastic vivacity which pre-eminently 

 marks its family among English birds, although it 

 lacks the vividness of plumage of many of them. 

 It finds a very paradise of intricate footholds among 

 the interstices of the carved and crumbling stones, 

 and fills them through all the year with its curious 

 life. 



Like the wren and other small but indefatigable 

 birds, the cole tit has the power of making the 

 human observer survey the world of its pursuits 



