lO OXFORD: AUTUMN AND TTINTEK. 



the throat and breast. One Sunday morning, as I was standing 

 on the Cherwell bank just below the Botanic Garden, a King- 

 fisher, failing to see me, flew almost into my arms, showing this 

 chestnut hue ; then suddenly wheeled, and flashed away all blue 

 and green, towards Magdalen Bridge.^ 



One story is told about the Kingfisher which I commend to 

 those who study the varying effect of colours on the eye. 

 Thompson, the famous Irish naturalist, was out shooting when 

 snow was lying on the ground, and repeatedly saw a small 

 brown bird in flight, which entirely puzzled him ; at last he 

 shot it, and found it to be a Kingfisher in its full natural 

 plumage. Can it be that the swift flash of varying liquid colour, 

 as the bird darts from its perch into the water, is specially 

 calculated to escape the eye of the unsuspecting minnow 1 It 

 nearly always frequents slow and clear streams, where its 

 intense brightness would surely discover it, even as it sits upon 

 a stone or bough, if its hues as seen through a liquid medium 

 did not lose their sheen. But I must leave these questions to 

 the philosophers, and return to Parsons' Pleasure. 



The island which I have mentioned is joined to Meso- 

 potamia by another bridge just below the weir ; and here is 

 a second post of observation, with one feature that is absent 

 at the upper bridge. There all is silent, unless a breeze is 

 stirring the trees ; here the water prattles gently as it slides 



' Since the text was written, I have seen a Kingfiaher hovering like a 

 dragon-fly or humming-bird over a little sapling almost underneath the 

 bridge by which you enter Addison's Walk. Possibly it was about to 

 strike a fish, but unluckily it saw me and vanished. The sight was one 

 of marvellous beauty, though it lasted but a few seconds. 



