The Marauder Driven Off, He
Would Return To The Tree To Utter His Triumphant Rattling Castanet-
Like Notes And (No Doubt) To Receive The Congratulations Of His Mate;
Then To Settle Down Again To Watch The Sky For The Appearance Of The
Next _Chimango_.
A second red willow was the next largest tree in the plantation, but
of this willow I shall have more to say in a later chapter.
The tall Lombardy poplars were the most numerous of the older trees,
and grew in double rows, forming walks or avenues, on three sides of
the entire enclosed ground. There was also a cross-row of poplars
dividing the gardens and buildings from the plantation, and these were
the favourite nesting-trees of two of our best-loved birds - the
beautiful little goldfinch or Argentine siskin, and the bird called
firewood-gatherer by the natives on account of the enormous collection
of sticks which formed the nest.
Between the border poplar walk and the foss outside, there grew a
single row of trees of a very different kind - the black acacia, a rare
and singular tree, and of all our trees this one made the strongest
and sharpest impression on my mind as well as flesh, pricking its
image in me, so to speak. It had probably been planted originally by
the early first planter, and, I imagine, experimentally, as a possible
improvement on the wide-spreading disorderly aloe, a favourite with
the first settlers; but it is a wild lawless plant and had refused to
make a proper hedge.
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