1886
May 27
  Early morning clear, cloudy at noon, light but
steady rain all the afternoon. Wind S.W. violent and cool.
  Tried a new ground this morning, driving to the 
Parker lot and spending the forenoon there. The first hour
promised well for the sun lay warm in the sheltered
woodland glades, but the cool rushing wind spoiled every-
thing by roaring through the trees and drowning all 
sound. Later, things became rapidly worse, for the sky
clouded while the wind did not abate. The result was
that I saw very few birds and heard almost none. What
this ground would furnish in more favorable weather
remains to be seen.
  I had one interesting experience. I was standing, or
rather leaning against a stone wall looking over, when I 
heard something fall at my feet. Looking down I discov-
ered a field mouse (a riparia) lying limp and apparently
freshly killed, but yet without evident injury, on the oak
leaves. It's presence there would not have been surprising,
but the fact that it fell from the wall aroused my 
suspicions and retiring a few rods I watched the 
wall closely. In a few moments a weasel, of the larger 
kind, in its brown summer pilage glided out, seized
the mouse by the nape, and made off, appearing and 
disappearing between the stones of the wall along which
it pursued its way with surprising speed.
  I started at least six or eight rabbitts (L. Sylvaticus) 
in the bush-grown openings and pasture edges. They
nearly all uttered a low, but clear whistling cry as they
sprang from their fawns. The only birds seen in any 
numbers were Dendroica pennsylvanica, Seiurus auricapillus
and Virio olivaceus. Of Minotilta varia, Hel ruficapilla
and Turdus fuscipeus, I heard only one each. I also saw