THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS. 33 



into the wildness and freedom of nature, and 

 marked by those half-cultivated, half-wild 

 features which birds and boys love. It is 

 bounded on two sides by the village and 

 highway, crossed at various points by car- 

 riage-roads, and threaded in all directions by 

 paths and by-ways, along which soldiers, la- 

 borers, and truant school-boys are passing at 

 all hours of the day. It is so far escaping 

 from the axe and the bush-hook as to have 

 opened communication with the forest and 

 mountain beyond by straggling lines of 

 cedar, laurel, and blackberry. The ground 

 is mainly occupied with cedar and chestnut, 

 with an undergrowth, in many places, of 

 heath and bramble. The chief feature, how- 

 ever, is a dense growth in the centre, con- 

 sisting of dogwood, water-beech, swamp-ash, 

 alder, spice-bush, hazel, etc., with a network 

 of smilax and frost-grape. A little zigzag 

 stream, the draining of a swamp beyond, 

 which passes through this tangle-wood, ac- 

 counts for many of its features and produc- 

 tions, if not for its entire existence. Birds 

 that are not attracted by the heath or the 

 cedar and chestnut are sure to find some 

 excuse for visiting this miscellaneous growth 

 in the centre. Most of the common birds 



