Th: Birds' Calendar 



hedged al^out by overarching trees and luxuri- 

 ant shrubbery, and enriched in the season with 

 purple and pink masses of wistaria and azalea, 

 while on the other side the eye ranges over the 

 whole expanse of the irregular lake, flanked on 

 the right by the massive and turreted '' Dakota," 

 its farther shore revealing a majestic row of pop- 

 lars and cypresses, and beyond them a line of 

 lofty buildings looming up like castle walls for 

 a solid background, and with the two white 

 spires of the Cathedral pricking the sky in the 

 blue distance. A pair of large night herons, 

 coursing hither and thither over the water, 

 give the requisite and poetic touch of anima- 

 tion. 



The fashionable world, luxuriously parading 

 in elegant equipages along the great driveways, 

 has doubtless been the chief means whereby the 

 Park has attained its national repute as a tri- 

 umph of landscape gardening ; but its finest ef- 

 fects are scattered along the less frequented ways, 

 and wealth will never see them until it goes afoot. 

 Somehow, too, one never seems to get into that 

 responsive mood wherein Nature can make her 

 best revealments, until he comes down from all 

 artificial elevation, and becomes an integral part 

 of all his surroundings by actual contact with 



266 



