A LIFE RECORD 73 



The year 1879 was spent by Mr. Boardman at home. 

 There was hardly a day down to the first of September 

 that he did not go to his favorite shooting grounds, work 

 in his bird house, send off a box of specimens to some 

 friend or write several letters to some one of the many 

 naturalists with whom he kept up a correspondence. 

 His diary shows that during the winter he worked much 

 in his bird house, drove out almost every day, visited 

 friends and went skating — a sport of which he was fond. 

 As the spring came on the entries in his diary become 

 more interesting. April 22 he " saw a snake on the snow. ' ' 

 The first martins came April 26, April 28 he went out 

 after snipe and "got a few." He went often to the 

 Maguerrawock and Mohannes streams — his favorite 

 resorts for water birds. He records : "May 19 — went 

 up to Uncle Steve's woods ; got warblers, several kinds ; 

 named all when I got home." In June Mr. Boardman 

 made a short visit to Boston and New York. Through 

 June and July he w^as out shooting nearly every day and 

 his diary records getting woodcock, young hermit thrush, 

 wood duck, house wren, snipe and other birds. 



On September 4, while out shooting at Clark's, Mr. 

 Boardman had the misfortune to injure one of his knees. 

 How it occurred is not recalled but he records it in his 

 diary as a "bad accident" — and it must have been a 

 bad one, otherwise he would not have so written. In the 

 same entry he says : " Saw many woodcock ; got two." 

 The day following, however, finding himself greatly 

 disabled, he sent for Doctor Knowles to attend him. 

 The result was that, although Mr. Boardman drove out 

 almost daily during the fall of 1879, worked in his bird 

 house, mounted some specimens, was present at the 



