Honest, but mistaken young man! As
well might he have said that the sea-wall [a very substantial one, by
the way] would build its nest in the melancholy pines. But it is
reasonable to hope that pine grossbeaks will find their way thither, and
that the German flutes of various finches will provide for the coming
Bavarians and Hessians (should any be left after the siege of Paris and
the _sorties_ of the truculent TROCHU) a welcome such as has not
heretofore been accorded to the strangers who at Castle Garden first set
foot upon our shore.
The Bowling Green--late a nuisance and a pandemonium, now an oasis of
verdure--has not as yet reported its owl, but the public eye is upon it,
and the nocturnal marauder may yet be detected in the forks of the great
willow-trees, which still retain their verdure. The sparrows are almost
disproportionately numerous in this small park, but this may be
accounted for. It has lately been laid down with new grass, the green,
tender blades of which, just now beginning to crop out, are probably
mistaken by the birds for "sparrow-grass" munificently provided for them
by the Commissioners.
In all of these city parks the contrast between past and present is very
striking and agreeable. But a few short months ago they were the
domiciles and dormitories of outcast roughs and vagrants of the worst
description, whose "'owls," as a Cockney explorer observed, "made night
'ideous.
Pages:
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43