BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 



Henrt D. Minot, the author of " Land-Birds and Grame- 

 Birds of New England," was bom on August 18, 1859, in 

 Boxbury, near Boston. He was the sixth child and fourth 

 son of William and Katherine Sedgwick Minot. 



His parental home comprised about thirty acres of land, 

 sheltered by large trees and abundant shrubbery, with a 

 varied, undulating surface, including also some acres of 

 swamp. It stood on the edge of the Great Forest, which 

 then stretched from Walk Hill Street to the town of Dedham 

 on the west, and to the Blue Hills and the Great Ponds in 

 Canton and Braintree on the south. Farms and small settle- 

 ments were scattered through these forests, and there were 

 large clearings where the timber and wood had been cut off, 

 and had been followed by a free growth of New England 

 shrubbery. Nature seemed to have fashioned this country 

 for the dwelling-place of birds. The forests, the open farm 

 fields, the thickets and hedgerows and swamps, afforded every 

 form of food and shelter suited to their wants ; and most of 

 the birds native to eastern Massachusetts, or occasional visi- 

 tors there, could with careful search be found. 



On the home grounds, from seventy-five to a hundred nests 

 were built every spring, and the broods therein successfully 

 raised, for the birds were carefully protected. Cats, Hawks, 

 gray squirrels, Crows, Jays, and snakes were summarily dealt 

 with ; every note of alarm was promptly answered with an 

 efficient rescue, and all the spring and early summer the air 

 was filled with the melody of happy birds. 



From early childhood, Mr. Minot showed a great fondness 

 for Nature, and her influence and charm increased with every 

 added year of his boyhood. He never wearied of wandering 



