cabin in the Adirondacks open its window to 

 more voices any square mile of solid, unbacked 

 forest on the globe show richer, gayer variety of 

 bird life? 



The nightingale, the dodo, and the ivorybill 

 were not among these thirty-six. What then ? 

 If one can live on an electric-car line, inside the 

 borders of a fine city, have his church across the 

 road, his blacksmith on the corner, his neigh- 

 bors within easy call, and, with all this, have 

 any thirty-six species of birds nesting within 

 ear-shot, ought he to ache for the Archseopteryx, 

 or rail at civilization as a destroyer f 



There is nothing remarkable about this bit of 

 country. I could plant myself at the center of 

 such a circle anywhere for miles around and 

 find just as many birds. Perhaps the land is 

 more rocky and hilly, the woods thicker, the 

 gardens smaller here than is common elsewhere 

 in eastern Massachusetts ; otherwise, aside from 

 a gem of a pond, this is a very ordinary New 

 England " corner." 



On the west side of my yard lies a cultivated 

 field, beyond which stands an ancient apple 

 orchard ; on the east the yard is hedged by a 

 [65] 



