A TAEIED COTJNTEY-SIDE. 73 



long ridge of hill forming the north-eastern boundary and 

 bulwark of the Cotswolds, and hiding from us the little old- 

 world towns of Burford and Northleach. We have therefore 

 within a radius of five or six miles almost every kind of country 

 in which birds rejoice to live. We have watfer-meadow, corn- 

 land, woods, and hills, and also here and there a few acres of 

 scrubby heath and gorse ; and the only requisite we lack is a 

 large sheet of water or marshy ground, which might attract the 

 waders and sea-birds so commonly found near Oxford. We are 

 neither too far north to miss the southern birds, nor too far 

 south to see the northern ones occasionally; we might with 

 advantage be a little farther east, but we are not too far west to 

 miss the Nightingale from our coverts. 



Such a position and variety would be sure to produce a 

 long list of birds, both residents and visitors ; not only because 

 there are localities at hand suited to be their dwelling-places 

 during the whole or a part of the year, but because they offer 

 the change of scene and food which is essential to the welfare 

 of many species. An open country of heath and common will 

 not abound in birds of more than a very few species, unless 

 it is varied with fertile oases, with garden, orchard, or meadow ; 

 for many of the birds that delight to play about in the open, and 

 rove from place to place during the first few months of their 

 existence, wUl need for their nests and young the shelter 

 of trees and shrubs. While the young are growing, they 

 require incessant feeding, and the food must be at hand which 

 they can best assimilate and digest; and it does not follow 

 that this is the same as that which the parents habitually 



