Cambridge.
Ther [Thermometer] Monday, Dec. 14, 1914 [December 14, 1914] Wea [Weather]
Gymnasium exercise begun.
Sunny with rising N.W. [northwest] wind & falling
temperature
  In Garden: Only a Crow & a Jay heard
and 3 or 4 House Sparrows seen. Nothing
comes to our suet or has done so, to
my knowledge, this autumn or winter.
Not only is bird life at low ebb but
Gray Squirrels also are not often seen.
This seems to be with them a season
of partial hibernation lasting for a
month or more.
  Spent part of day in Museum working
on Banded-backed Woodpecker story. Did
little more than revise & rewrite the 2 pp. [pages]
composed yesterday. Had many vexatous [vexatious]
interruptions of one kind or another.
  Dick Dana called for me with his motor
car at 4.40 P.M. & took me over to a
Harvard gymnasium on Chauncy Street
where I have joined a class of old fellows
& propose to exercise twice or thrice weekly
through the winter. We kept at it together for
an hour (5-6) to day & ended with a cold shower
bath. I enjoyed it greatly.
Helen & Anna Almy came in this eve [evening] for Victrola music.

Cambridge.
Ther [Thermometer] Tuesday, Dec. 15, 1914 [December 15, 1914] Wea [Weather]
15 [degrees] Fine
Clear & cold with high N.W. [northwest] wind.
Ground hard frozen again.
  In Garden: heard a Flicker & a Downy [Downy Woodpecker]
calling.
  Spent day in Museum. Worked 
on Banded Three-toed Woodpecker in
forenoon rewriting most of introductory
part for third time. Verily am I in
"the Doldrums" again with respect to
this writing business. Why cannot I
make my pen say what is in my 
mind especially when, as is oftenest
the case, the thought is commonplace
enough? The more it is so, the greater
the difficulty, it would seem, perhaps
because I try so hard to make it
appear otherwise.
  In afternoon wrote letters & cheques
and selected upwards of fifty specimens
of Parrots, mostly from Mexico, to be sent
[to] Ridgway for study in conn. [connection] with his work
on Part VII, Birds of North & Central Am. [The Birds of North and Middle America Part VII]
Victrola music in hall 7.30-9.30 P.M.
Uncommonly good renderings to-night.