A Bouquet of Song Birds 



presence of many other familiar species. A 

 single walk in this region in the flood-tide of 

 migration will sometimes reveal between fifty 

 and sixty varieties. 



But these woods are not simply an ornitho- 

 logical retreat. They are, perhaps, not less at- 

 tractive to anyone who delights 



" To feed on flowers and weeds of glorious feature," 



of which Nature has here formed so rich an 

 arabesque. What particularly strikes the ob- 

 server is the luxuriance, as well as the variety, 

 of plant-life in this small area. Such glorious 

 masses of the commoner sorts one seldom sees : 

 enormous buttercups, 



"Like nightes starres, thick powdred everywliere ; " 



giant dandelions, almost dazzling by their 

 numbers and intensity of hue ; large tracts 

 where one might suppose that the countless 

 flakes of a belated snow-storm had struck root 

 into the earth and melted their frozen forms 

 into anemones ; and such violets ! mammoth 

 clusters of rare and melting blue, exhaling an 

 ineffably soft atmosphere, a thousand times more 

 subtle tha{i a blush, and lingering in the eye 



17 



