1886
June 11
  A gray dawn, the sky clearing and the sun
shining out at about 5.30 A.M. Remainder of day
clear and hot.
  Arose at day-break and was off in my boat
at exactly 4.30. Spent about two hours along the
banks of Great Meadow and then paddled on with-
out stopping, past Balls' Hill, and nearly to Billerica
Bridge. I had intended to go below the bridge, but
hearing the song of a Parula in the woods on the West
side of the river, I landed, crossed the meadow and
found myself in an extensive tract of fine old
timber, mixed hardwoods and pine, with at least
one black spruce.
  Birds proved to be more numerous here than I
have found them elsewhere this season. On every side
the woods rang with their songs. Naturally I was in
no haste to leave, and I spent three or four hours 
there.
  Besides the Parula catalogued above I heard anoth-
er [male] and saw its mate tugging at the scattered tufts
of [?], evidently collecting material for its nest,
although I failed to follow it.  The Blackburman was
in full song and doubtless breeding. The solitary
vireos must have had a nest, for the [female] was about to
lay. It seemed quite like the Maine woods to hear
these three birds singing in the same neighborhood.
  I found an Oven-bird's nest with 4 eggs far
advanced and a Hummingbird's with two in a
similar condition. As usually, the [female] betrayed her
treasures by over-anxiety, attracting my attention by
her bumble-bee like buzzing overhead. The nest was
on the dead branch of a small black oak. I tipped