134 BY-WA YS AND BIRD-NOTES. 



comfortable but for the ever-fresh breezes ; the 

 light vegetable mould of the thin forests warms 

 at once, and within a few days everything is 

 green with leaves and gay with flowers. Even 

 the oak-trees have scarcely time to show their 

 tassels before their leaves have broadened to 

 dimensions wholly beyond comparison with 

 those of oak foliage in any lower or higher lati- 

 tude. An almost dazzling vividness flashes, so 

 to speak, from valley to hill-top, indicative of 

 an exceptional local climatic impulse. Every- 

 thing grows with a riant haste, as if aware 

 that this ecstatic Spring vigor would soon ex- 

 haust itself (as it nearly always does) and 

 leave the region to a long, dreamy Summer 

 drouth. 



The migratory birds drop into this favored 

 district, just in time to get the full benefit of 

 its luxuriance, and are met by a clamorous and 

 querulous army of residents, whose domain is 

 too large to be successfully defended against 

 invaders. The wild orchards of plum and 

 haw that border the glades, the thickets of 

 young pines, the hickory groves and the dusky 

 forests of post-oak and black gum are at once 

 flooded with song. The semi-marsh lands 

 where the liquidamber * flourishes, and the 

 river " bottoms " where the tulip-tree and the 

 ash and elm grow to giant size, are the haunts 

 of the pileated woodpecker, the hermit-thrush, 



* The sweet gum {Liquidamber styraciflua) is a 

 beautiful tree growing to perfection in the Southern 

 States, along the banks of small streams in wet land. 

 The gum or resinous balsam obtained by scarifying the 

 bole is of a clear amber color, is pleasing to the taste, 

 and gives forth a peculiarly agreeable odor. The tree 

 bears a flat oval berry of a dark blue color much sought 

 after by the golden-winged woodpecker. 



