No. 4.] BIRDS ON THE FARM. 117 



brown to 3^ello^^^, until, as we reach the hilltop, we find what 

 Avas undoubtedl}' once a sand dune, like those of Cape Cod 

 or Cape Ann. Here the only soil is almost a pure sand, and 

 little will grow but poverty grass and other primitive plants. 

 Most of this rise is covered with a rather thin arrowth of 

 pitch pines and white pines, but a thick belt of trees on the 

 north gives additional protection to the garden and the 

 poultry houses. Fowls do well here, for the exposure is 

 sunny and the soil sandy. In the scrub oaks along the hill- 

 side, towhees, brown thrashers and cuckoos thrive. Here 

 the notes of the pine "svarbler, wood pewee and field sparrow 

 are heard in spring. East of this wood an open field with 

 scattering trees leads to a neighbor's house on the hilltop. 

 South of garden, house and barn lies the "robin roost," a 

 gTove of white pines, about forty-five years old and some 

 six acres in extent. Here the robins roost in numbers in 

 early spring, late summer and early fall, when they come in 

 at dusk by hundreds. 



This is a breeding ground for jays, robins and squirrels. 

 Green herons often roost here. Warblers, kinglets, titmice 

 or creepers may be found in this grove almost any day 

 during the entire year. For most of the season the grove 

 is left to the bhxls, except for a part of each summer, when 

 two summer cottages within its confines are occupied. 

 There is a spring-fed pool in this grove, where pond lilies, 

 fish, frogs and turtles form a combination which seems to 

 attract both feathered and unfeathered bipeds. This pool 

 provides a bathing and drinking place for the birds of the 

 grove. Here herons and kingfishers stop to fish. Here 

 hawks stoop and wild fowl occasionally rest. South of the 

 grove is a field of three acres, devoted now to the cultiva- 

 tion of sweet corn, roots and other vegetables. This field 

 is also surrounded by woods on tliree sides, with a belt of 

 trees and shrubbery for a ^vind-break on the fourth or west 

 side. This wind-break separates the field from a tract of 

 lowland of some fifteen or twenty acres, once mainly salt 

 marsh, but now, diked off and reclaimed from the river, it 

 forms a cranberry bog. A pool of an acre or more lies in 

 the centre of the bog. This was formerly an arm of the 



