BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 27 



pairs, and was tlie occasion of much jealousy and heart burning on the part of the Wrens 

 whose box tliey coveted for the second nesting. 



I do not think that the Cedarbird was a common resident of Cambridgeport, but there was 

 a row of cedars outside our garden fence, in which they occasionally nested, as they did also 

 every year in Pine Grove at the end of Brookline Street. Though practically silent, their 

 trim forms and exceedingly beautiful though quaker-like dress entide the Cedarbirds to a high 

 place among the bird aristocracy, and render them a favorite in any neighborhood. 



In these same cedar trees, too, a pair of Purple Finches occasionally nested, and the beau- 

 tiful song of this species was by no means uncommonly heard elsewhere in the town. Pine 

 Grove, however, was the favorite resort of this Finch, and there was a pasture thick with tall, 

 bushy savins in which could be found, any summer, six or eight nests of this bird. I grieve to 

 add that only too often they were raided by thoughtless boys, who frequently destroyed the 

 eggs out of pure wantonness. This location must have possessed some peculiar and powerful 

 attraction to tlie Finches, for, notwithstanding their ill treatment, they continued to nest here 

 for years, often building new nests in place of those destroyed. 



Nor in my enumeration must I forget the familiar ' Chippy ' as one of tlie commonest 

 Cambridgeport birds. Their hair-lined nests were frequently to be seen in cedar trees or, in 

 default of these, in any thick and well-screened bush, or even in an apple tree. 



Though not a common bird, as I remember, the Red-eyed Vireo was by no means unknown 

 to the Cambridgeport streets. I cannot now recall the presence of his cousin, the Warbling 

 Vireo, though doubtless a pair was to be found, here and there, making the neighborhood the 

 richer by the sweet, warbling song. I believe, however, that this Vireo was much more com- 

 mon in Old Cambridge. 



In the early spring it was no uncommon sight to see a Song Sparrow or two in the 

 gardens along Brookline Street, and no doubt occasionally a pair ventured to build in the 

 shrubbery, though the risk from marauding cats must have been very great. Pine Grove, 

 however, was a favorite resort for the species, and here I early became acquainted with their 

 housekeeping secrets. They used to build among the straggling blueberry and huckleberry 

 bushes, which still bore fruit, maintaining a rather precarious existence in this little piece of 

 pine woodland. 



I never heard nor saw the Pine-creeping Warbler within the busy parts of the town, but 

 the little island of pines I have so often mentioned as ' Pine Grove,' an heirloom from early 

 Colonial times, was still resorted to by a few pairs, perhaps die descendants of birds that nested 

 here in Indian days. It was here that, lying on a bank among the pines that overlooked the 

 sluggish Charles, I first became acquainted with the Pine Warbler's sweet trilling song ; and 

 many a pleasant hour 1 spent as a boy hunting, and hunting in vain, for its nest. 



The above are all the birds that 1 remember as summering near my old home, and 1 

 fancy that but few of them are still to be found amid the increasing hum of an ever growing 

 city. 



When Alvin Clark built his observatory he cut down part of Pine Grove, much to our 

 childish grief, and gready to our relief when we found that his house and observatory were 

 not to occupy the whole grove. The trees were mosdy pitch pines with a few oaks and a num- 

 ber of hickories. 



The 'cedar' pasture was thick with what I suppose to have been Jiiniperits virginiana . 

 It must first have been enclosed when I was a small boy since, when I first knew it, I was able 

 to jump over most of the shrubby trees without regard to the tapering tops. As they grew, 

 they furnished sites for the nests of the Purple Finches and die Chippies, especially the 

 former. 



