A PAKADISE OF BIEDS. 3 



or Dresden. The college system, which has had so much 

 influence on Oxford in other ways, and the control exercised by 

 the University over the government of the town, have had 

 much to do with this, and the only adverse element even at the 

 present day is the gradual but steady extension of building to 

 the north, south, and west. A glance at a map of Oxford will 

 show how large a space in the centre of the town is occupied 

 by college gardens, all well-timbered and planted, and if to these 

 are added Christchurch Meadow, Magdalen Park, the Botanic 

 Garden, and the Parks, together with the adjoining fields, it 

 will be seen that there must be abundant opportunity for ob- 

 servations, and some real reason for an attempt to record them. 

 Since the appearance in the Oxford Magazine in May 1884, 

 of a list of ' The Birds of Oxford City,' I have been so repeat- 

 edly questioned about birds that have been seen or heard, that 

 it is evident there are plenty of possessors of eyes and ears, 

 ready and able to make use of them. There are many families 

 of children growing up in ' the Parks ' who may be glad to learn 

 that life in a town such as Oxford is does not exclude 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 ob- 

 servation. There is doubtless something to be said for this 

 system, though in my opinion there is much more to be said 



B 2 



