Xo. 4.] BIRDS OX THE FARM. 115 



Large tracts of this burned land are covered mainly with 

 berry bushes ; hence the saying that ' ' the Cape is one great 

 berr}^ pasture." The low or dwarf species clothe the hills, 

 while in the lower valleys and swamps the higher berries 

 grow to })erfection. Here birds find an abundance of fruit 

 during the sunmier 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. The dead wood is an attraction for wood- 

 peckers, 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 

 this character. To the west toward Rochester the land is 

 divided into farms, consisting of cultivated land, grass land 

 and woodland, such as may be seen generally throughout 

 eastern ^Massachusetts. 



Xow, let us look at the condition of the farm itself, when 

 acquired, that we may consider its unaided capacity for 

 attracting and sustaining a variety of bird life. The owner 

 having left the place, it had been occupied for some years by 

 tenants. This occupation had not conduced to its improve- 

 ment, inasnuicli as some land that might have been tilled 

 had been left to the processes of nature, and had grown 

 weeds, shrubbery and young trees. Such tangles, however 

 much they may interfere with good farming, seldom fail to 

 hold out some attraction to birds, and for this reason they 

 mny be allowed to remain wherever it can be done con- 

 sistently with the purpose of the utilitarian. 



As there were less than nine acres of land cleared, it was 

 in the owner's power largely and immediately to control the 

 conditions necessary to accommodate a change or increase 

 of bird life, for trees can be cut much quicker than they can 

 be grown. One cannot expect to have many species of 

 useful birds about his farmstead, unless he has, or can pro- 

 vide, in addition to his open or cultivated fields, a variety 

 of trees and slirubbery. These will furnish birds food and 

 shelter, roosting and nesting places, and retreats to which 

 they may fly when i)ursued b}^ their enemies of the air. 

 Most land birds prefer the neighborhood of trees, and many 



