l6 OXFORD: AUTUMN AND WINTER. 



little birds are however quite willing to live in the very centre 

 of a town, indifferent to noise and dust. A Marsh-tit was 

 once seen performing its antics on a lamp-post in St. Giles. 

 A Great-tit built its nest in the stump of an old laburnum, in 

 the little garden of Lincoln College, within a few yards of the 

 Turl and High Street ; the nest was discovered by my dog, who 

 was prowling about the garden with a view to cats. I took 

 great interest in this brood, which was successfully reared, and 

 on one occasion I watched the parents bringing food to their 

 young for twenty minutes, during which time they were fed 

 fourteen times. The ringing note of this Great-tit or his 

 relations is the first to be heard in that garden in winter-time, 

 and is always welcome. The little Blue-tit is also forthcoming 

 there at times. One Sunday morning I saw a Blue-tit 

 climbing the walls of my College quadrangle, almost after the 

 manner of a Creeper, searching the crannies for insects, and 

 even breaking down the crust of weathered stone. Among 

 memories of the rain, mist, and hard work of many an Oxford 

 winter spent among these gray walls, ' haeo dim meminisse 

 juvabit.' 



But I have strayed away from Christchurch Meadow and 

 the Botanic Garden. Here it is more especially that the 

 Thrush tribe makes its presence felt throughout the autumn. 

 In the Gardens the Thrushes and Blackbirds have become so 

 tame from constant quiet and protection, that, like the donkeys 

 at Athens of which Plato tells us, they wiU hardly deign to 

 move out of your way. A Blackbird proceeded calmly to take 

 his bath, in the fountain at the lower end near the meadow, one 



