Oxford, England.
1909.
Aug. 6 [August 6, 1909]
  Cloudless, calm, very warm. Almost no haze.
  At 4 P.M. we hired a small barge and rowed down
the Cherwell about a mile to the Rollers. The river was calm
and divinely beautiful in the clear afternoon light. Although
crowded with boats there was very little noise or loud talking.
The banks were lined almost everywhere with rows of fine
old willows, oaks, elms, alders, hazels (here trees, not shrubs) etc.
In places they form a perfect arch of dense foliage over
the sluggish, placid little stream which averages only ten
to fifteen yards in width. It is bordered in many places
by tall flags, not unlike our cat-tails in general appearance,
and filled with aquatic plants most of which are new 
to me. Among them was a cow lily & what looks like our
eel grass. There were many flowers along the banks but
no general show of them to compare with those of our
[?] wood when at its best. It seemed strange to have
no mosquitoes & no dragon flies but not one of either was
seen or heard.
  Bird life was everywhere abundant. Over the open, grassy
meadows, intersected by lines of hedge & trees, Swallows, Martins,
and Swifts were skimming and Wood Pigeons & Rooks flying to & fro.
From the trees above & close about us came a variety of piping,
chattering & twittering calls most of which I dimly remembered
as having heard in 1891 but very few of which I could identify.
Every now and then came the loud, staccato song of a Robin
or the more complex one of a Wren. We saw one Robin perched
on a low branch over the water. As we were eating lunch in the
boat drawn up close to the bank, a Wren appeared within a yard of
us collecting spiders from the back of a willow. She probably took them
to her nest in which her young were calling. It was in a shallow crevice
in the trunk within four feet of my head.