Devastated 
woodland 
The Black 
Bear oak 
burned 
appeared at the mouth of the hole. For a few seconds she 
remained there motionless and then flew to another tree,in 
perfect silence. This behavior is quite characteristic 
of her and her mate. They flit about uneasily when my men 
are working under orrfiaj the tree which shelters the nest 
but I never hear them utter any sound tfeen, although they 
are still noisy enough at times (less often than a week 
or tv/o ago, however) in other parts of the orchard or in 
neighboring woods. 
Later this afternoon I walked up the road as far 
as Everett Mason's and then turned in on the left, crossing 
his farm and the back pasture where his fine old chestnuts 
formerly stood. Only two or three of them remain standing 
and the liimberman who cut them have utterly devastated 
the beautiful pine woods next them on Abbott Lawrence's 
farm. In burning the branches and other waste, they have 
seriously injured if not quite ruined the great black 
oak in which a Black Bear was once shot and which Lawrence 
would not permit them to cut. Its lower branches are 
scorched and leafless and it stands alone in a barren and 
blackened waste. The big chestnut and a fine white oak 
are the only other trees of any size that were spared in 
this once secluded and most attractive piece of woodland. 
Most of the country beyond was cut over about the same 
time or shortly before that, but it was not burned over. 
