Cambridge, Mass.
1901.
June 26.
(5).
  After finishing with the Cambridgeport Region we drove
to Norton's Woods. Here I left the buggy and spent about an
hour and a half rambling about and taking the notes on which
the following description of the place is based: although it 
was now late in the forenoon and intensely hot the birds sang
freely and my list of species reached a greater number than I
had though it possible to note under such conditions.
  In the days of my boyhood the Norton estate was more 
than twice as extensive as it is now. There was a bushy 
swamp in which Red-winged Blackbirds used to breed which was
drained and occupied by the Shady Hill Nursery Company early
in the 30s and much of the higher ground, cut up into house
lots a few years later and now intersected by Irving and
Scott Streets, was formerly covered with woods. The old mansion
house, with its immediate surroundings of some 8 or 10
acres, remains, however, essentially unchanged. The house
stands on the crest of a hill of moderate elevation and is
nearly surrounded by a group of tall elms whose branches
droop low over the roof. It is approached from the western
side by a winding driveway shaded by large white pines, beeches
and red maples. On either side of the driveway lie gently 
sloping, grassy fields sprinkled with apple trees, thickets
of lilacs and clusters of wild roses. The roses were in full
bloom this morning and several cows were grazing under the
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