BIRDS FROM A SUBURBAN WIN- 

 DOW 



MY up-stairs study window overlooks a 

 narrow strip of unreclaimed land in a sub- 

 urban town, five miles from the heart of a 

 great city. This little wildwood patch of 

 mine (I call it mine, though it was sliced 

 into lots, sold and mortgaged, long ago) 

 contains about four acres of low, moist land, 

 grown up to soft maples, birches, and alders. 

 A real country tangle of blackberry bushes, 

 buttonwood, and hardback covers the 

 ground, except where the alders grow along 

 the brook, and all the year round the birds 

 find in this snug covert shelter, food and 

 nesting-places. I can sit at my south win- 

 dow, and, literally, look down into the pri- 

 vate apartments of my feathered neighbors. 

 It is a rare opportunity for one who loves 

 to study birds a privilege which more than 

 doubles the value of my property to me. 



There is hardly a variety of the com- 

 moner and more domesticated birds of the 

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