296 WASTE-LAND WANDERIXGS. 



introduced and not native to JSTew Jersey, the planting 

 of the first specimens must have been long ago. I have 

 positive knowledge of two that have shaded a little front 

 yard since 1739 ; and is not this tree referred to when, in 

 a deed bearing date of 1089, an " Indian bean-tree " is 

 mentioned? After the first quarter of a century the 

 growth appears to be very slow, and yet one that I was 

 forced to cut down some years ago had one hundred 

 and twenty-seven well-defined rings, and measured two 

 feet one inch in diameter. 



Considering that since earliest colonial times catalpas 

 have been common, and are now an abundant forest- 

 tree, it is probable that in central New Jersey the tree 

 is native and not introduced. One strong proof of this 

 is, I think, the fact that about a half mile from here 

 there was, a century ago, a half-acre grove of very large 

 catalpas. Their value as fence-posts was then known, 

 and they were felled for that purpose. Many of the 

 posts lasted sixty years, and one large gate-post was not 

 w^iolly decayed when removed twenty years later. This 

 is a better record as fencing material than that of the 

 yellow locust. 



As I was looking towards the crooked catalpa this af- 

 ternoon, I saw issuing from it a blue- jay, chased by a 

 score of smaller birds which it had doubtless been an- 

 noying. Jays are never happy except when in mis- 

 chief, but as there are no birds' -nests now to rob, I can- 

 not imagine his offence. 



Under date of August 25th, Dr. Benjamin Smith Bar- 

 ton makes this curious entry in his field notes : " About 

 this time the Corvus cristatus, called Blue-j ay, having 



