1891
May 31
(No. 4)
Mass.
North Truro. - We reached Small's at about 5 o'clock.
It is a singular and very attractive place the
house being in the bottom of a large sink-hole
and half-buried in the foliage of apple and silver leafed
poplar trees. These, nourished by the rich soil
and sheltered from the wind by the encircling
hills, have attained proportions very unusual
for this part of the Cape. Some of the poplars
were at least 60 feet in height and showed their
tops above the crests of the hills. The apple trees
were just coming into full bloom. In the garden
behind the house I found spider lily and other
old-fashioned plants.
  Beyond the garden is a large swamp filled
with densely growing Clethra, Black Alder & Blueberry
bushes.
  In the trees about the house Robins & Chipping
Sparrows were singing. There was also an Oriole
(I. galbula), the only one I have seen here, and
numbers of Crow Blackbirds. The last -named
had nests in the tops of the apple trees and
poplars, but were breeding in the greatest
numbers among the bushes in the swamp in
company with Red-wings and Song Sparrows.
In the apple trees we saw a Black & Yellow Warbler
and beneath one of them, under a grape arbor,
in a bed of dandelions, feeding on the dandelion
seeds, a beautiful male Nonpareil (C. ciris).
Mr. Small says it appeared on the 27th and
has been seen daily since, always in or near
the dandelion beds. It stayed until the afternoon