196 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
shows the necessity of strict accuracy and the utmost care in 
scientific investigation. 
Mr. Maynard says: ‘‘The Ipswich Sand-hills, where the 
specimen was procured, is a most peculiar place. I never have 
met with its equal anywhere. Years ago these Sand-hills, 
which are three miles long by three-fourths of a mile across, 
and contain about one thousand acres, were covered with a 
thick growth of pine-trees. Protected by these trees, and 
among them, dwelt a tribe of Indians, whose earlier presence 
is indicated, not only by tradition, but by numerous shell heaps 
scattered over the Sand-hills at irregular intervals. Indeed, 
even now the ashes of camp-fires may be seen, apparently 
fresh. Upon the advent of the white man, the usual event 
transpired, namely, the disappearance of the trees; and to- 
day, with the exception of a few scattering ones at the south- 
easterly corner, near the house of the proprietor of the Sand- 
hills, Mr. George Woodbury, not a tree is to be seen. All is 
bleak and barren. The surface of the ground, once covered 
with a slight deposit of soil, has become a mass of shifting 
sands. Many times has the present owner had cause to regret 
the want of foresight in his ancestors in removing the trees, as 
the several acres of arable land around the house are now cov- 
ered with sand, including a valuable apple-orchard. Upon this 
orchard the sand has drifted to the depth of thirty feet. Some 
of the trees present the curious phenomenon of apples growing 
upon limbs that protrude a few feet only above the sand, while 
the trunk and lower branches are buried! The Sand-hills, in 
places, are covered with a sparse growth of coarse grass, upon 
the seeds of which, as I have remarked elsewhere, thousands 
of Snow Buntings feed. There are, in some places, sinks or 
depressions with the level of the sea. In these sinks, which, 
except during the summer months, are filled with fresh water, 
a more luxuriant growth of grass appears. Walking, on De- 
cember 4, 1868, near one of these places, in search of Lapland 
‘Longspurs, I started a sparrow from out the tall grass, which 
flew wildly, and alighted again a few rods away. I approached 
the spot, surprised at seeing a sparrow at this late day so far 
