wanting. Loons and grebes come and go. The upper river, 

 flowing through salt marshes backed by pine woods, offers 

 secluded retreats for eagles, fish hawks, herons, bitterns and 

 various water fowl and shore birds. One large, solitary pine 

 tree standing on our shore has been used for at least two years, 

 in the fishing season, by an immense bald eagle as a perch, 

 from which he watches the evolutions of the fish hawks. 



If we follow the river above the head of tide water toward 

 the Plymouth woods, we shall see another feature of this region 

 which renders it attractive to birds. Here lies an uninhabited 

 country. There are no dwellings and no fences. The only 

 buildings to be seen are the "bog houses," where cranberries 

 are housed, screened and packed for shipment each fall. The 

 land is undulating, consisting of a series of low hills, with 

 occasionally a well-watered valley. Many of these valleys have 

 been made into cranberry bogs. There are many natural ponds 

 lying in sheltered basins, and other artificial ponds which are 

 used for flowing the bogs. 



This country no doubt was once well wooded. Then white 

 pine woods extended well down on the Cape, and oak timber 

 grew there; but, for years past, parts of this region have been 

 visited by forest fires, until much of the wild land down through 

 Sandwich, Barnstable and Falmouth has been burned over. 

 Large tracts are now denuded of trees. On these tracts scrub 

 oaks, pitch pines and berry bushes spring up. When these 

 are burned, the ashes from the fire supply the earth with 

 sufficient potash to produce a great crop of berries. Large 

 tracts of this burned land are covered mainly with berry bushes; 

 hence the saying that "the Cape is one great berry pasture." 

 The low or dwarf species clothe the hills, while in the lower 

 valleys and swamps the higher berries grow to perfection. Here 

 birds find an abundance of fruit during the summer and early 

 fall months. The swamps furnish them sheltered roosting 

 places. The ponds and bogs furnish food and resting places 

 for wild fowl and marsh birds. 1 The dead wood is an attrac- 

 tion for woodpeckers, and the wood birds find a congenial 

 habitat in those portions of the standing timber still spared by 

 the flames. Most of the country for miles to the north is of 



1 Since 1902 many of the swamps have been made into cranberry bogs. 



