Native Brooks. 79 



An old deserted farm-house, with hand-made lath and 

 beams, and filled in with mud, stands on the hill facing 

 this deep ravine, and the outlook, extending to the ocean 

 beyond, is one of the most pleasing on the island. Some 

 of the orchard trees are very large and have many tenants 

 among the birds, and cardinal grossbeaks live Winter and 

 Summer mid the catbrier on the hill-side. The other 

 branch of this brook rises in the swamp, where the Reeds, 

 father and son, raised willows for basket-making. The 

 trees still remain, and " forget-me-nots " grow along the 

 brook bank, but the house is gone. 



To the northwest of Richmond village there is a wild 

 piece of country, and two little brooks join in the woods 

 and flow into that arm of the Kill that reaches so far into 

 the island. As late as 1884, the night herons made their 

 home near its banks, and the deserted nests in young 

 swamp oaks, often several in a tree, and an occasional one 

 in a white birch or cedar, may still be seen. The people 

 in the neighborhood gathered the eggs and, beating them 

 together, fed them to the cows, and the Italians also ate 

 many. They are as large as the eggs laid by many breeds 

 of hens, so a very few would make a meal. These birds 

 utter a dismal " qua" and always seem sad, sitting motion- 

 less on the trees through the day until evening, when they 

 go fishing in the Kills. 



There is a dark, gloomy old house in the woods near 

 this brook, where some of the Italians lived when employed 

 on the railroad. It is now given over to chimney swal- 

 lows and wasps, and the carpenter bees have made their 

 tunnels in the boards for many years. One of these boards 



