BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 35 



ing from various wild creatures such as inhabit most retired New England woods 

 and fields, there was, however, no lack, for the region teemed with animal life. 

 As a winter resort for birds it was unequalled by any locality that I have ever 

 known in eastern Massachusetts. During the colder months the woods or 

 thickets invariably harbored numbers of Downy Woodpeckers, Flickers, Blue 

 Jays, Crows, Goldfinches, Tree Sparrows, Juncos, Creepers, Nuthatches, Chick- 

 adees and Kinglets, besides a few Quail, Ruffed Grouse, Red-tailed Hawks, 

 Red-shouldered Hawks and Screech Owls. Pine Grosbeaks, Purple Finches, 

 Redpolls, Pine Siskins, and Crossbills of both species occurred less regularly, 

 but often very numerously. Most abundant and conspicuous of all the birds 

 found in winter were the Robins and Cedarbirds. They usually appeared late in 

 January and were constantly present through February, often congregating by 

 hundreds in the cedar groves or about a large bed of asparagus where the stalks, 

 laden with bright red berries which these and a few other birds greedily devoured, 

 were always left standing until April or May. 



In spring and autumn the Mount Auburn Region attracted a large number 

 and variety of Warblers and other small woodland or orchard birds, most of 

 which were on their way to or from more northern breeding grounds. Indeed, 

 at these seasons it was almost as good a collecting ground as the Maple Swamp. 

 Its summer fauna, also rich and varied, included one species of especial 

 interest, viz., the Olive-sided Flycatcher, which Nuttall found breeding near 

 Mount Auburn before 1832, and which continued to nest in the same locality 

 from 1867 to 1879. Among the commoner and more characteristic summer 

 birds were the Pine Warbler, which inhabited all the pitch pine woods, the 

 Purple Finch, which bred abundantly in some of the cedar groves, and the 

 Bluebird, the House Wren and the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, which were plentifully 

 distributed throughout' the apple orchards. 



The nature lover who has occasion at the present time to traverse the coun- 

 try just beyond Mount Auburn will find but little of beauty or interest there. 

 Knolls and ridges have been levelled, swamps and meadows drained or filled, and 

 woods, groves, thickets and orchards swept away, to make place for settlements 

 of houses or for open, closely cultivated truck farms. The few remaining trees 

 are infested by gypsy and brown-tailed moths, most of the native birds have 

 disappeared, and throughout the length and breadth of the land the ear is 

 wearied by the ceaseless din of swarming House Sparrows. Indeed, the entire 

 region, once so secluded and attractive, has become irretrievably mutilated and 

 hopelessly vulgarized. So complete has been the transformation, that it is only 

 by appealing to the imagination, or to the memory of happy days gone, alas, 

 never to return, that one can hope to reconstruct even the more prominent fea- 

 tures of the landscape as it was twenty or thirty years ago. 



