Cambridge
Ther [Thermometer] Wednesday, Dec. 30, 1914 [December 30, 1914] Wea [Weather] 
Sunny & mild with rather high
westerly wind. Snow & ice melting through
forenoon but stiffening again before nightfall.
Surface of streets cut up to heavy motors
& very rough.
  In Garden: a Downy [Downy Woodpecker] and at least
two Blue Jays heard; several House
Sparrows seen.
  Spent day in Museum working on
Banded Three-toed Woodpecker story.
Wrote five pp. all compiled, however,
from an article on the nesting of the
bird contributed by me to "The Osprey"
years ago. I am now condensing and
otherwise changing most of this matter
but transcribing some of it almost literally.
  Played the Victrola to C. [Caroline Brewster] after lunch
and to C. & E.R.S. [Elizabeth R. Simmons] this evening when
we also had reading aloud from
Marian Crawford's "Fair Margaret", a 
capital story. Mrs. Cobb called at 8.30.

Cambridge.
Ther [Thermometer] Thursday, Dec. 31, 1914 [December 31, 1914] Wea [Weather]
24 [degrees] max. [maximum] Fine.
Clear & seasonally cold with light
westerly wind. Our city lawns and
streets coated to a depth of four or 
more inches with hard snow ice
or icy snow. I know not which to
call it. It has mostly disappeared from
the side-walks but they are still
dangerously slippery in many places.
  Bird-life continues at low ebb hereabouts.
I noted only a solitary Flicker & a few
House Sparrows in our grounds. The
only Gray Squirrel seen there for almost
or quite a month past appeared about noon
in the Jungle.
  This, the closing day of a year that
must be forever memorable because of
the Great War that began last August,
has been spent by me in Museum working
at my accustomed & delightful task
with C. [Caroline Brewster] there through A.M. type copying
my M.S. [manuscript] I wrote only three pp. & these compiled.
E.R.S. [Elizabeth R. Simmons] has been reading aloud to me & listening
to Victrola music all the evening. C. has gone
in town to see the New Year in at St. Pauls. I am
sitting up to await her return.