1887
(May 8)
  the woods generally being as bare as in winter. In
fact the vegetation is remarkably backward which the
birds seem to be ahead of their usual time.
  One or two Bobolinks were singing over the Mill Brook
meadow, Kingbirds were chattering about the bank,
and Red-wings calling on every side. The white willows
were in full flower and their delicate fragrance was 
very noticeable as I passed. They were alive with bees of all
kinds and [?] and every cluster of them was sure
to have a Yellow Warbler or two, singing of courses.
  In the woods I heard Oven birds, a Wilson's Thrasher,
Black-and-white Auers, a Maryland Yellow-throat
and several Robins and Thrashers. Pickering Lylas
were in full chorus and sunset; I also heard a few
Bufeo americana, several morning frogs (R. halicuna?) one
R. sylvatica, and a single Rana Pippins, the Callio
bellowing lustily. There were many turtles, among them
a wood tortoise or a rock in the middle of the river.
Saw only two musk rats, one perched on the branch of
a willow several felt above the water Cassandra calyculata
in bloom;shade bush on the point of flowering but none 
actually out. Cherry blossoms open on the 5th Lily pads
floating on the surface in a shuttered cover their leaves
perfect in the outline and of the color of a purple bush.
  Returning after sunset I purred to the top of Ripley's
Hill. The maple swamp below without the faintest tinge of
green but the tips of the branches pink on a smoke gray
base of stems. A perfect medley of bird voices in this
swamp chief of Brown Thrashers and Robins with a Maryland
Fl. Throat and Wilson's Thrush. Two Bitterns booming in the 
meadows beyond, alternating as if answering one another.
All then birds singing until it became nearly dark.