42 SUMMER 



like low-hung stars, light up the sleeping birds till 

 their shadows waver large upon the stark walls about 

 the old graveyard that break far overhead as rim 

 rock breaks on the desert sky. 



Now shift the scene to an early summer morning 

 on Boston Common, two blocks farther up, and on 

 to the Public Garden across Charles Street. There 

 are more wild birds to be seen in the Garden on a 

 May morning than there are here in the woods of 

 Hingham, and the summer still finds some of them 

 about the shrubs and pond. And it is an easy place 

 in which to watch them. One of our bird-students 

 has found over a hundred species in the Garden. 

 Can any one say that the city offers a poor chance 

 for nature-study ? 



This is the story of every great city park. My 

 friend Professor Herbert E. Walter found nearly 

 one hundred and fifty species of birds in Lincoln 

 Park, Chicago. And have you ever read Mr. Brad- 

 ford Torrey's delightful essay called " Birds on Bos- 

 ton Common " ? 



Then there are the squirrels and the trees on the 

 Common ; the flowers, bees, butterflies, and even the 

 schools of goldfish, in the pond of the Garden 

 enough of life, insect-life, plant-life, bird-life, fish- 

 life, for more than a summer of lessons. 



Nor is this all. One block beyond the Garden 

 stands the Natural History Museum, crowded with 

 mounted specimens of birds and beasts, reptiles, 



