BLACKBIRDS AND BEEBIES. 1 7 



morning when I was looking on, and seemed to be fully aware 

 of the fact there was a locked gate between us. Missel-thrushes 

 are also to be seen here ; and all these birds go out of a morning 

 to breakfast on the thickly-berried thorn-bushes at the Cherwell 

 end of the Broad Walk, where they meet with their relations 

 the Eedwings, and now and then with a Fieldfare. The walker 

 round the meadow in winter will seldom fail to hear the harsh 

 call of the Redwing, as, together with Starlings innumerable, 

 and abundance of Blackbirds, they utter loud sounds of disap- 

 proval. There is one bush here whose berries must have some 

 strange ambrosial flavour that Blackbirds dearly love. All the 

 Blackbirds in Oxford seem to have their free breakfast-table 

 here, and they, have grown so bold that they'will return to it 

 again and again as I teasingly walk up and down in front of it, 

 merely flying to a neighbouring tree when I scrutinise them too 

 closely in search of a lingering Eing-ousel. Who ever heard 

 of a, flock of Blackbirds'? Here however, in November 1884, 

 was a sight to be seen, which might possibly throw some light 

 on the process of developing gregarious habits. 



Books, Starlings, Jackdaws, and Sparrows, which abound here 

 and everywhere else in Oxford, everyone can observe for them- 

 selves, and of Sparrows I shall have something to say in the next 

 chapter ; but let me remind my young readers that every bird 

 is worth noticing, whether it be the rarest or the commonest. 

 My sister laughs at me, because the other day she found an old 

 copy of "White's Selborne belonging to me, wherein was inscribed 

 on the page devoted to the Book, in puerile handwriting, 

 the following annotation : ' Common about Bath' (where I was 



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