This fine, large meadow, upwards of one hundred acres in extent, has changed but little, either in character or surroundings, within the past thirty or forty years. It lies partly in Belmont and Waltham, but chiefly in the southeastern corner of Lexington, near the source of Beaver Brook. Although for the most part open and grassy, it contains many swampy thickets, several tracts of low-lying maple woods and a few wooded ridges and 'marsh islands.' The Concord Turnpike crosses it from east to west on an ancient causeway bordered by pollarded willows. Through the long and alluring vista formed by the trunks and overarching branches of these fine old trees one may walk or drive in cool and unbroken shade during the hottest June day, listening to the songs of Bobolinks, Red-winged Blackbirds, Swamp Sparrows, Yellow Warblers, Maryland Yellow-throats, Catbirds and other marsh- or thicket-loving birds . . . As the meadow is also bordered on every side by sparsely populated country, abounding in woods, thickets, cedar pastures and grassy fields, it offers to the bird lover one of the most attractive and interesting resorts to be found anywhere, at the present time, within easy reach of Cambridge.

"It was in Cambridge that Nuttall wrote his 'Manual' where for about 10 years (1823-1832), he was curator of the botanic garden; it was evidently here also that he gathered much of the original matter contained in the 'Manual'. Later (1832-1840) Cambridge was the scene of much careful field work by the three Cabot brothers, and Henry Bryant. "Between 1842 and 1860 they {the birds of Cambridge} also received more or less attention from James Russell Lowell, Thomas M. Brewer, Wilson Flagg, and various successive members of the Harvard Natural History Society."