4 OXFORD : ATJTUMN AND WINTEE. 



against it; 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 

 acuteness 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, hefore they leave home, some of the 

 simplest and most obvious lessons of natural history. 



So in the following pages it wiU be partly my object to write 

 of the Oxford birds in such a way that anyone of any age may 

 be able to recognise some of the most interesting species that 

 meet the eye or ear of a stroller within the precincts of the city. 

 And with this object before me, it will be convenient, I think, 

 to separate winter and summer, counting as winter the whole 

 period from October to March, and as summer the warm season 

 from our return to Oxford in April up to the heart of the Long 

 Vacation ; and we will begin with the beginning of the Univer- 

 sity year, by which plan we shall gain the advantage of having 

 to deal with a few birds only to start with, and those obvious 

 to the eye among leafless branches, thus clearing the way for 

 more difficult observation of the summer migrants, which have 

 to be detected among all the luxuriousness of our Oxford foliage. 



I shall call the birds by their familiar English names, where- 

 ever it is possible to do so without danger of confounding 

 species; but for accuracy's sake, a list of all birds noticed in 

 these pages, with their scientific names according to the best, 

 or at any rate the latest, terminology, will be given in an 

 appendix. 



When we return to Oxford after our Long Vacation, the only 



