. Wild life near home . two old owls ate, andleaving out of the count the two frogs, it is withinlimits to reckon not less than six small animalsbrought to the hollow gum every night of thethree weeks that these young owls were depen-dent for food—a riddance in this short time ofnot less than one hundred and twenty-five musk-rats, mice, and voles. What four boys in thesame time could clear the meadows of half thatnumber? And these animals are all harmful,the muskrats exceedingly so, where the meadowsare made by dikes and embankments. Not a tree in South Jersey that spring bore amore profitable
. Wild life near home . two old owls ate, andleaving out of the count the two frogs, it is withinlimits to reckon not less than six small animalsbrought to the hollow gum every night of thethree weeks that these young owls were depen-dent for food—a riddance in this short time ofnot less than one hundred and twenty-five musk-rats, mice, and voles. What four boys in thesame time could clear the meadows of half thatnumber? And these animals are all harmful,the muskrats exceedingly so, where the meadowsare made by dikes and embankments. Not a tree in South Jersey that spring bore amore profitable crop. When fruit-growing inJersey is done for pleasure, the altruistic farmerwith a love for natural history will find largereward in his orchards of gums, that now areonly swamps. Just as useful as the crop of owls, and beyondall calculation in its sweetening effects upon ourvillage life, is the annual yield of swallows bythe piles in the river. Years ago a high springtide carried away the south wing of the old[268]. It is no longer a sorry forest of battered, snnken stumps. bridge, but left the piles, green and giown ovei■with moss, standing with their heads just abo^eflood-tide mark. In the tops of the piles areholes, bored to pass lines through, or left l)yrusted bolts, and eaten vide by waAes and these there are a few genuine exca^a-tions made by erratic woodpeckers. This wholeclump of water-logged jiiles has been colonized[269] by blue-backed tree-swallows, every crack andcranny wide enough, and deep enough to hold anest being appropriated for domestic uses by apair of the dainty people. It is no longer asorry forest of battered, sunken stumps; it is aswallow-Venice. And no gayer gondoliers everglided over wave-paved streets than these swal-lows on the river. When the days are longestthe village does its whittling on the new bridgein the midst of this twittering bird life, watch-ing the swallows in the sunset skim and flashamong the rotting timbers over
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1901
