SUGAR MAPLES. 
63 
come back to biiild nests of tlieii* own among their native brandies. 
The happiest portion of their bird-life is passed ^vith ns. Many 
of those we see flitting about, at present, are doubtless building 
within sight and sound of our windows ; some years we have 
counted between forty and fifty nests in our own trees, without 
including a tribe of swallows. Many birds like a village life ; they 
seem to think man is a very good-natured animal, building chim- 
neys and roofs, planting groves, and digging gardens for their 
especial benefit ; only, they wonder not a little, that showing as 
he does a respectable portion of instinct, he should yet allow 
those horrid creatures — boys and cats — to mn at large in his 
domain. 
Monday, 8th. — On many of the sugar maples the long flowers 
are hanging in slender green clusters, while on others they have 
not yet come out ; and year after year we find the same difference 
between various individuals of the same species of maple, more 
marked, it would seem, among these than with other trees. Some 
are much in advance of others, and that without any apparent cause 
— trees of the same age and size growing side by side, varying this 
way, showing a constitutional difference, like that observed in 
human beings among members of one family. Frequently the 
young leaves of the sugar maple are only a day or two behind 
the flowers ; they begin to appear, at least, at that time, but on 
others, again, they wait until the blossoms are falling. These 
green flowers hanging in full clusters on long filaments, give 
a pleasing character to the tree, having the look of foliage at a 
little distance. Generally they are a pale green, but at times, on 
some trees, straw-color. The sugar maples, unlike many other 
flowering trees, do not blossom young ; the locusts, amelanchiers, 
