SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS 



XV 



Natural Bird Gardens on Mount 

 Desert Island 



Edward Howe Forbush 



Massachusetts State Ornithologist, Author of " Useful Birds and 

 Their Protection,'' a book placed by order of the Massachusetts 

 Legislature in every Public Library and High School in the 

 State; Author of ''Game Birds and Wild Fowl.'' 



When America was first discovered the coast of Maine 

 was the habitat of myriads of land and water birds. 

 Marvelous accounts of their abundance have come down 

 to us in the narratives of the early voyagers, and it is 

 indeed a region wonderfully fitted to be a great nesting 

 ground and feeding place for both land and water 

 species. The coast line is so broken with deep, irregular 

 indentations and the islands lying off it are so numerous 

 that from the mouth of the Kennebec at Casco Bay to that 

 of the St. Croix at the Canadian boundary it presents to 

 the wash of the tides more than 2,500 miles of shore. All 

 along the coast there are broad flats and salt-marshes 

 extending deeply inland which are swept over twice a 

 day by the tide's great flood, rising 12 feet or more in 

 the Mount Desert region; and every recurring tide 

 brings in with it and deposits on these flats and marshes 

 quantities of floating marine life, while countless animal 

 and vegetable forms grow on and in their fertile bottoms. 



In early days, accordingly, when every tide went out 



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