BIRD LI¥E m AN OLD APPLE- 

 TREE 



Near my study there used to stand several 

 old apple-trees that bore fair crops of apples, 

 but better crops of birds. Every year these old 

 trees were the scenes of bird incidents and bird 

 histories that were a source of much interest and 

 amusement. 



Young trees may be the best for apples, but 

 old trees are sure to bear the most birds. If 

 they are very decrepit, and full of dead and 

 hollow branches, they will bear birds in winter 

 as well as summer. The downy woodpecker 

 wants no better place than the brittle, dozy 

 trunk of an apple-tree in which to excavate his 

 winter home. 



My old apple-trees are all down but one, and 

 this one is probably an octogenarian, and I am 

 afraid cannot stand in another winter. Its body 

 is a mere shell not much over one inch thick, the 

 heart and main interior structure having turned 

 to black mould long ago. 



An old tree, unlike an old person, as long as 

 it lives at all, always has a young streak, or 

 rather ring, in it. It wears a girdle of perpet- 

 ual youth. 



My old tree has never yet failed to yield me 



