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 angusti folium), is well known to the ornithologist 
as the summer home of the Mourning Warbler. 
Here is a sparkling trout stream, perhaps the outlet 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 
odcl-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 Flycatcher, 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 
