England.
1911.
July 1-31
(No 4)

Oxford birds.
Wood Pigeons
Stock Doves.

  When I reached Oxford on July 3rd Thrushes, Wrens and Wood Pigeons
were still singing freely in the trees and shrubbery in the city park and gardens
and Skylarks, Yellow Hammers and Corn Buntings in the open fields.
I also heard a number of Blackbirds and a few Robins during the first
few days, especially in early morning and at evening. At the latter hour
I usually went into the park and here, as well as along the banks of the
little river (Cherwell), I was treated to several very delightful bird
concerts in which Thrushes, Blackbirds, Robins, Wrens and Wood Pigeons
took chief part. There was also a black-capped Titmouse which I took to
be the Marsh Tit whose wiry but not unmusical notes were uttered freely &
often very persistently at all hours of the day. Wood Pigeons were
unusually abundant everywhere this summer. At evening, their deep, guttural,
measured cooing notes came from far & near throughout the wooded parts of
the Park and was always grateful to my ears. Stock Doves were much
less numerous & I heard only one coo, on July 5, in an elm in Christchurch
meadows. It had a deep, hoarse note repeated six or eight times without variation.