Song Birds and Water Fowl 



trees almost deceive the senses, and suggest the 

 vista of a subterranean Paradise — one of those 

 dainty scenes that make one sure the Lord loved 

 beauty when He made the world. 



As this river has become a source of water- 

 supply for the city, the property along the 

 banks has been confiscated — we might say, in 

 the interest not only of health but of art ; for 

 the acme of scenic effect is in the various aban- 

 doned buildings, made of stone, dismantled, 

 silent, and moss-grown; here a residence, there 

 a mill, discernible through the foliage, and in 

 some cases almost overhanging the rocky river- 

 inhabiting ravine — the nearest approximation 

 to time-worn ruins that is ever vouchsafed to us 

 in this glorious land of only yesterday. In the 

 interest of the picturesque, and of that instinct 

 of the human heart that finds the deepest charm 

 of landscape in its reminiscent aspect, and in 

 the ivy-traihng evidence of vanished life, which 

 can create the only utter silence in the soul — in 

 both these interests, it is to be hoped that the 

 rampant spirit of utility will never be allowed 

 to vulgarize these relics into quarries of brick 

 and stone. 



Having heard the fame thereof from other 

 ornithologists, I visited the spot late in May, 



3° 



