Birds by the Wayside 161 



of the road Tan for a few miles over the cultivated plain. Be- 

 side it frequently there were buildings, that looked like road- 

 houses, sometimes there were three or four houses near each 

 other, with once or twice a church. For nearly two-thirds of 

 the distance the road lay with innumerable serpentine twist- 

 ing-s through a wooded district, at first about the eastern base 

 of Mount Pentelicus, then near the sea, but not in sight of it. 

 No homes appeared in the woods, and cultivated clearings 

 were not numerous. In North America such a district would 

 have been alive with woodland birds at a corresponding stage 

 of spring migration. In the entire afternoon we saw one 

 Hooded Crow, two Crested Larks, a few Swallows and Mag- 

 pies, and a very few birds that were not identified. In a dis- 

 trict so thinly inhabited there seemed to be scarcely enough 

 people to catch all the birds, had that been their main business. 



On the plains of Marathon we spent an hour or more about 

 the tumulus, built over the graves of the fallen heroes who, 

 with their more fortunate companions, saved Hellas from the 

 Persian invaders. The soil of the plain appears to be very 

 poor, judged from the scanty growth of its grain crops. Sev- 

 eral species of plants were in bloom. On the way there we 

 had passed patches, nearly a quarter acre in extent, that were 

 completely covered as by a carpet with small purple flowers. 

 At Marathon some very attractive blossoms were not recog- 

 nized, but there was one; that called for more than passing 

 notice. Not since my childhood had I seen garden thyme ; how- 

 ever, it is a plant, which once known is never forgotten. The 

 wild thyme was blossoming there in abundance, and we gath- 

 ered handfuls of it — roots and all — to carry to- Athens for the 

 eighty per cent of our party that had not cared to make the 

 trip. All had been enjoying the unique flavor of Grecian 

 honey, which the bees are said to gather largely from wild 

 thyme. Whether we were served with the famed honey of 

 Hymettus, or a superior quality produced in other portions 

 of Greece, we could not learn. 



There was another article of food of classical fame, which 

 I had been anxious to see before I left the Orient. When 



