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found between the clumps of broomsedge. Commonly after five years the 
pines show above the grass, and ten years will have produced an even-aged 
stand of young pines several feet tall. The species of pine may be any of 
the three kinds indigenous to the region — loblolly (Pinus taeda), short- 
leaf (Pinus echinata), and Virginia (Pinus virginiana). Which comes in 
depends largely on the chance of seeding, as all thrive equally well wherever 
they start. 
As the pine forest develops, many changes occur. Persimmon trees live 
regularly in young pine stands but decrease as the stands mature because of 
excess shade. When the forest has reached the age of twenty years, a dis- 
tinct overstory of pines is evident and an understory of hardwoods, most 
important of which are sweet gum, black gum, sourwood, dogwood and white 
ash. The appearance of a few scattered oaks and hickories at this age is 
significant, as they are to be the ultimate kings of this forest. 
As the stand develops, the weaker understory pines, competing with 
shade tolerant hardwoods, are the first to be eliminated. They cannot re- 
produce in their own shade and as the stand matures only the tall dominant 
pines remain with none intermediate between them and the seedlings on the 
forest floor. It is this weakness which eventually eliminates pine as a 
dominant. When an understory pine dies, there are no pines to replace it, 
and the deciduous species from the understory then grow up into the 
dominant stratum. A pine stand is middle-aged by 40 years, and if desired 
commercially will be cut by then. If undisturbed, it becomes overmature at 
70-80 years and as it thins out is replaced by oaks and hickories which have 
increased steadily in the lower strata. Eventually (150-200 years) oaks 
and hickories dominate the area, with scattered pines remaining as relics. 
In the Piedmont region this seldom happens, as the pines are cut long before 
they mature and the cycle repeats itself from an open field. But in the 
Duke Forest, Durham, North Carolina, a 5,000 acre tract owned and pro- 
tected by Duke University, we saw all of the stages of developing and 
mature pine and oak-hickory forests. Throughout the Piedmont area aban- 
doned fields and invading pines could be seen everywhere, but they were 
especially well-marked near Athens, Georgia. 
It was here that I saw a pair of blue grosbeaks playing in the willows 
bordering a broomsedge field and where I first heard Bachman’s sparrow, 
long read about but until then a stranger. His song floated to me out of 
the distance just once, sounding like a field sparrow with the order of the 
song reversed — the trill first and the three or four notes at the end. It 
kept on going after a field sparrow would have stopped. In the adjacent 
pineries pine warblers hopped slowly among the thick branches, treating 
the anxious listener to infrequent strains of their musical trill. Along the 
streams white-eyed vireos were more generous as they vociferously urged 
each other to “Pitch him in the creek,” according to the Georgia version. 
In the oak-hickory forests we uncovered many varieties of snails and lizards, 
Carolina wrens, Louisiana water-thrushes, Alabama towhees, and a flashy 
blue-tailed skink guarding her eggs. We discovered that the robin, usually 
known as a peaceful bird, has been invading Georgia within the past years. 
A quarter of a century ago there were no red-breasts in Georgia. Today 
