1886
June 4
  Clear and cool, nearly a dead calm all the morning,
a high S.W. wind late in the afternoon.
  Getting off in my boat at about 9.a.m. I spent a
long day on the river returning late in the afternoon.
The weather was cool and delightful, the river at
it's loveliest and the meadows a sea of waving green.
It was a rare day in every way and I enjoyed it to
the utmost, taking plenty of time for each guest for birds
or eggs that I entered upon.
  I landed first on the north bank where I took
two Yellow Warbler's nests and found a third with
nearly-hatched young.
  A little below, at the picturesque pass where the
river scrapes between overhanging white maples and
willows. Five Night Herons started from the trees. Op-
posite this point I landed and made a long but
fruitless search for Botalick's nests. The males evidently
gave their sitting mates due warning of my approach
and I invariably found both sexes flying carelessly
about the males saluting me with derisive bursts of song.
Later in the day I turned the tables on them, for on
my return the wind was blowing a gale, and the sit-
ting [female]s could not hear either their mates' warning or
my approach. As a consequence I surprised two on
the nest, and secured one set of six, another of
five eggs.
  Just below Dakin's Hill I started five Wood Ducks
in the usual place. One flew from the low branch of
a willow where it had been sitting in the sun. I
think all were drakes but could not be sure.
  I lunched on the top of Ball's Hill. My over-bird's
nest there which held three eggs in the first, had been