AND THE WILDERNESS BLOSSOMED 



the fish below. A number of these birds are 

 shot every year, but they seem to be on the 

 whole quite as plentiful as they were several 

 years ago. 



I love to watch the kindly little Chipping 

 Sparrows, and the mother's care of her brood is a 

 lesson for the rest of bird-life, and for human 

 beings also, for that matter. They huddle so 

 closely about the mother, teasing for food so 

 loudly that she always gives it to them, even 

 when they are quite full grown. The English 

 Sparrow, that noisy, quarrelsome fellow, has as yet 

 never landed on the island, and may a kind 

 Providence still continue to keep him away ! 



Both the Red-headed and the Hairy Wood- 

 pecker are residents of the island, the latter being 

 by far the more common of the two. Every 

 year we have at least one noisy nest of Crows, 

 and the Cuckoo is to be seen and heard at times, 

 though not frequently. I saw the Scarlet Tan- 

 ager but once, while the Red-eyed Vireo, the 

 Red-breasted Nuthatch, the Kingbird, and the 

 Olive-backed Thrush are common, as well as a 

 number of other summer visitors with whom I 

 am not so familiar. 



When we began the building of the house, I 



lOO 



