THE ORNITHOLOGIST AND BO']'ANIST. 



15 



THE AMERICAN LAUREL. 



BY JULIA M. HOOPER, WEST BRIDGEWATER, MASS. 



All over the rock-studded mountain, 

 Near down to the valley below. 



It spreads till it looks, in the distance. 

 Like a mountain of rose-tinted snow. 



And surely our nation's flower-emblem 

 The wide-spreading laurel should be 



With its strength and its Deauty, e'er crowning 

 Ous mountains, from sea unto sea. 



MID -WINTER. 



BY MRS. S. E. ROESSLEE, NEW HAVEN, CONN. 



Mid-winter air, clear, crisp, bright. Shall we 

 take a stroll ? Even now, we may gather much 

 of interest. Color is not wanting: the twigs of 

 the brook willows are yellow; the dog-wood 

 sprays are red; the hill side birches are silvered; 

 the laurel, the spruce, the hemlock, the pine, the 

 cedar, rejoice in a perpetual green. Although 

 the mosses and ferns are snow-bound, the su- 

 mach berries are all aflame, and all the woods 

 look so roomy, with the leaf draperies gone. 



Step aside from this cart-path, and tell me if 

 each tree has not a clearly defined character ? 

 The mottled sycamore; the gnarled wild apple 

 tree with its suggestions of sourness; the stately 

 tulip tree; the graceful liquid-ambar; the droop- 

 ing willow; the monarch oak; the staid chestnut; 

 the shaggy hickory; the swamp maple ; the glor- 

 ious elm, — each is an ideal of what a tree may 

 become. 



As we crunch along through the crusty snow, 

 we crush the buds of the sweet-fern shrubs and 

 inhale their fragrance. We Hsten to the moan 

 of the pines and push through the alders that 

 border the swamp. We remember that here, 

 last summer, the star-wort whitened the bog, 

 and many a time we thought we were sure of 

 its trails, but, alas, they were all afloat. Here 

 the leaf-blades of the calamus crowned, and the 

 yellow and blue of the aquatics gleamed. Ah! 

 for one hour of this firmness to stand upon next 

 summer ! So much of promise is frozen over : 

 such an abundance of rootlets, with hidden life, 

 beneath this frost ! 



Let us take home a fagot bundle — a large 

 bough of cedar, also. Cast the cedar on the 

 grate fire and enjoy the forest incense that fills 



our apartment. Other resinous woods are de- 

 lightfully aromatic and spicy; when all aflame 

 they crackle and sparkle. 



There is much sport for children in a wood- 

 pile. As soon as the snow-fall was sufficient 

 for sledging, we always had, in my early home, 

 cords of wood piled by the back door. Here 

 we played log cabin, and the moss that grew on 

 the logs was used as draperies. We constructed 

 bark huts for our dolls and roofed them with 

 the quaint wood lichens. 'I'hese mosseries are 

 vividly remembered, as we notice the rustic 

 window-work that emphasizes our holiday dis- 

 plays. Those of us, who visited our Centen- 

 nial in '76, may remember the state-house, from 

 Mississippi, made of logs or log bark and hung 

 with the southern moss; it was rustically pretty. 



Birch bark is made into mountain keep-sakes. 

 Those canoes filled with plants from the heights 

 are extremely ingenious, h Maine lady, on hej 

 one hundredth birthday, tells how her mother 

 taught her to write on birch bark. 



There are so many items of interest, con- 

 nected with all we see and hear in Nature, tnat 

 one has only to go out of doors, to be both 

 instructed and amused. Dr. Abbott, in his 

 " Outings at Odd Times," says, " There is the 

 elixir of perpetual summer ever in the woods 

 in winter, and happy is he who can find it." 



A WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW'S NEST. 



BY ELMER J. GILLETTE, BARRE CENTRE, N. Y. 



The white-crowned, and white-throated spar- 

 rows are not surpassed in beauty by many of 

 their family. The former is quite common here 

 in the spring, until about the niiddle of May, 

 when nearly all leave for the north, but some 

 stay about a week later. We sometimes think 

 this little sparrow will spend the summer with 

 us, for he stays until many of the small birds 

 have built their nests and laid their eggs. In 

 fact, on one occasion, I found a nest of this 

 sparrow, which contained four fresh eggs. 



The nest was placed in a berry bush about 

 two feet from the ground. It was composed 

 principally of the stalks of small weeds, roots, 

 coarse grass and other coarse material. The 

 hning consisted almost entirely of fine grass, hair 



