134 BY-WAYS AND BIRD-NOTES. 
comfortable but for the ever-fresh breezes ; the 
light vegetable mould of the thin forests warms 
at once, and within a few days everything is 
green with leaves and gay with flowers. Even 
the oak-trees have scarcely time to show their 
tassels before their leaves have broadened to 
dimensions wholly beyond comparison wit 
those of oak foliage in any lower or higher lati- 
tude. An almost dazzling vividness flashes, so 
to speak, from valley to hill-top, indicative of 
an exceptional local climatic impulse. Every- 
thing grows with a sant haste, as if aware 
that this ecstatic Spring vigor would soon ex- 
haust itself (as it nearly always does) and 
leave the region to a long, dreamy Summer 
drouth. 
The migratory birds drop into this favored 
district, just in time to get the full benefit of 
its luxuriance, and are met by a clamorous and 
querulous army of residents, whose domain is 
too large to be successfully defended against 
invaders. The wild orchards of plum and 
haw that border the glades, the thickets of 
young pines, the hickory groves and the dusky 
forests of post-oak and black gum are at once 
flooded with song. The semi-marsh lands 
where the liquidamber * flourishes, and the 
river “bottoms” where the tulip-tree and the 
ash and elm grow to giant size, are the haunts 
of the pileated woodpecker, the hermit-thrush, 
* The sweet gum (Liguidamber styraciflua) is a 
beautiful tree growing to perfection in the Southern 
States, along the banks of small streams in wet land. 
The gum or resinous balsam obtained by scarifying the 
bole is of a clear amber color, is pleasing to the taste, 
and gives forth a peculiarly agreeable odor. The tree 
bears a flat oval berry of a dark blue color much sought 
after by the golden-winged woodpecker. 
