: A Year with the Birds Third Edition Enlarged by Fowler W Warde William Warde Hook Bryan Illustrator - Birds; Birds Great Britain

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How I came to notice birds--Oxford favourable to bird-life--Late lingerers in October--Migration and pugnacity of Robins--The Bullfinch and the buds--Parsons' Pleasure and the Cherwell--Kingfishers rare in the summer term--Colouring of the Kingfisher--The Gray Wagtail at the weir; its beauty--The Lesser Redpoll--An eccentric Jack-snipe--Birds of the Park and Magdalen Walk--Lesser Spotted Woodpecker--Christchurch meadow and the Botanic Garden; Titmice, Blackbirds, Redwings--Sea-birds in Port Meadow 1

Departure of winter birds--Warblers; explanation of the term--Different kinds of warblers--Tree-warblers--Chiff-chaff's arrival--Willow-warbler's song and nest--Blackcap and Garden-warbler; their songs compared--The two Whitethroats at Parsons' Pleasure; how to distinguish them--River-warblers; comparative rarity of Reed-warbler; his song compared with Sedge-warbler's--The Redstart and pollard willows--Summer habits of Oxford Sparrows--Flycatcher and other birds in the Parks 35

The Alpine pastures in June--Ornithologists and the Alps--Johann Anderegg, a peasant naturalist--Number of species in Switzerland; abundance of food--Migration, complete and partial--The Alps how far a barrier to migrating birds--The three ornithological regions of Switzerland; migrations within them--Stanz-stadt and its reed-bed--Valley of the Aa--White Wagtail and Black Redstart--The Swallow family--The Alps proper and their birds; Water-pipit, etc.--Citril Finch at the Engstlen Alp--Snow-finches--Rock-creeper; its habits--Birds of the pine-forests; Woodpeckers, Tit-mice--Crested Tit in the Gentelthal--Bonelli's Warbler at Meiringen 68

Description of the vale of the Evenlode--Situation of the village; variety of scenery--Movements of the birds in the district--A bird-haunted garden--Redstart; its increase of late years--A Black Redstart on an ugly wall--Cuckoo and Robin's nest--Ingenious Nuthatches--Spotted Flycatcher; his peculiarities--Allotments and Rooks--Green Sandpiper in the brook; occurrence in midwinter--Habits of young birds--Rooks hostile to intruders--Long-tailed Tits on the ice 111

Railways favourable to birds--Whinchat and Stonechat--Peculiarities of the Buntings--Nests by the railway--Ring-ousel--Song of the Tree-pipit--Pipits, Larks, Wagtails--Predatory birds of the woods--Interview with a Grasshopper Warbler; its "reel"--Beauty of the Nightingale; its habits and song--Song-birds of the woods--Woodpeckers--Birds of the hills--Local migrations during the year 144

Geography of Switzerland--Bird-catching on the passes--Birds on the Br?nig Pass--The Hasli-Thal--Crossbills--The Gadmen-Thal and Stein-alp--Migration on the Susten-pass--Hospenthal--Departure of Swallows--Migration of insects--Return to Meiringen--The Swiss peasant 177

NOTES 255

INDEX 263

A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS.

For several years past I have contrived, even on the busiest or the rainiest Oxford mornings, to steal out for twenty minutes or half an hour soon after breakfast, and in the Broad Walk, the Botanic Garden, or the Parks, to let my senses exercise themselves on things outside me. This habit dates from the time when I was an ardent fisherman, and daily within reach of trout; a long spell of work in the early morning used to be effectually counteracted by an endeavour to beguile a trout after breakfast.

The fact is, that for several obvious reasons, Oxford is almost a Paradise of birds. All the conditions of the neighbourhood, as it is now, are favourable to them. The three chief requisites of the life of most birds are food, water, and some kind of cover. For food, be they insect-eaters, or grub-eaters, they need never lack near Oxford. Our vast expanse of moist alluvial meadow--unequalled at any other point in the Thames valley--is extraordinarily productive of grubs and flies, as it is of other things unpleasant to man. Any one can verify this for himself who will walk along the Isis on a warm summer evening, or watch the Sand-martins as he crosses the meadows to Hincksey. Snails too abound; no less than ninety-three species have been collected and recorded by a late pupil of mine. The ditches in all the water-meadows are teeming with fresh-water mollusks, and I have seen them dying by hundreds when left high and dry in a sultry season. Water of course is everywhere; the fact that our city was built at the confluence of Isis and Cherwell has had a good deal of influence on its bird-life. But after all, as far as the city itself is concerned, it is probably the conservative tranquillity and the comfortable cover of the gardens and parks that has chiefly attracted the birds. I fancy there is hardly a town in Europe of equal size where such favourable conditions are offered them, unless it be one of the old-fashioned well-timbered kind, such as Wiesbaden, Bath, or Dresden. The college system, which has had so much influence on Oxford in other ways, and the control exercised by the University over the government of the town, have had much to do with this, and the only adverse element even at the present day is the gradual but steady extension of building to the north, south, and west. A glance at a map of Oxford will show how large a space in the centre of the town is occupied by college gardens, all well-timbered and planted, and if to these are added Christchurch Meadow, Magdalen Park, the Botanic Garden, and the Parks, together with the adjoining fields, it will be seen that there must be abundant opportunity for observations, and some real reason for an attempt to record them.

So in the following pages it will be partly my object to write of the Oxford birds in such a way that any one of any age may be able to recognize some of the most interesting species that meet the eye or ear of a stroller within the precincts of the city. And with this object before me, it will be convenient, I think, to separate winter and summer, counting as winter the whole period from October to March, and as summer the warm season from our return to Oxford in April up to the heart of the Long Vacation; and we will begin with the beginning of the University year, by which plan we shall gain the advantage of having to deal with a few birds only to start with, and those obvious to the eye among leafless branches, thus clearing the way for more difficult observation of the summer migrants, which have to be detected among all the luxuriousness of our Oxford foliage.

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