GENERAL FEATURES. I 7 



of Woodpeckers, while the dense growth of blackberry and rasp- 

 berry bushes, dotted over with the large showy flowers of the Willow 

 Herb [Epilobium angustifolhnn), is well known to the ornithologist 

 as the summer home of the Mourning Warbler. 



Here is a sparkling trout stream, perhaps the oudet of a mountain 

 lake ; let us follow its winding course through yonder thicket of 

 alders. Working our way through the tangled bushes we soon 

 emerge into the open grassy bottom of one of the most beauti- 

 ful and interesting of nature's many adornments — a Beaver meadow. 

 Here, less than a century ago, might have been heard the splash and 

 seen the hut of the sagacious Beaver. But, like the Moose that once 

 roamed these mighty forests, they have, excepting a few isolated 

 individuals, been exterminated or driven beyond our borders, till 

 now these green meadows, with occasionally the buried ruin of an 

 ancient dam, are about all that remain to remind us of the former 

 existence here of one of the most curious, interesting, and typical of 

 North American mammals. 



The dam has long since disappeared, and as it gave way the pond 

 again became a narrow stream, spreading its way through the broad 

 muddy bottom, now verdant with marsh grasses that spring from a 

 thick bed of elastic Sphagnum. Upon this moist level now stand 

 scattered clumps of feathery tamaracks ; and here and there over 

 the uniform light green of the meadow rise, in marked contrast, the 

 odd -looking Blue Gentians and the bright scarlet Cardinal Flowers. 

 These are favorite haunts of the Canada Jay and, in. the autumn, of 

 immense flocks of Robins that come to feed upon the handsome ber- 

 ries of the mountain ash trees that always skirt the open places, 

 easing the stiff edge of the bordering forest. Here, too, may 

 be heard the quick snap of the Wood Pewee, as he gobbles 

 up some passing insect, and the characteristic note of his congener, 

 the Olive-sided Plycatcher, who is perched upon the topmost 

 branch of yonder hemlock. Should you possess the keen eye and 

 stealthy tread of the experienced hunter, you may surprise a red 



