1887
May 10
Concord, Massachusetts.
  Clear and hot; wind S.W.
  Off at 9 a.m. striking over Ripley's Hill
and spending the morning in the country to 
the eastward:
  On the top of the hill I found a few birds,
a Pine Warbler, there Cow Buntings, and some 
Chipping Sparrows besides a pair of Vireo flavifurous
of which I shot the female.
  The maple swamp was too wet to be cofortably
traversed to I passed it by and took the path
towards Caesar's woods. Finding nothing in the first
oaks but a Robin's nest with one eggs I next tired
the birches to the south. They proved alive with 
Oat Birds, Thrashers, and Field Sparrows but 
nothing more attractive.
  Crossing the Lowell R. R. I entered a an
extension mixed woods of oak, pine, and birch.
Hardly had I begun to thread my way among
the trees where a female Grouse fluttered off his nest
some six feet away and skulked away flattening
her body to the ground and whining as if with young.
The rust held then eggs which looked perfectly
fresh. I was struck with their close resemblance
in color to the surrounding bleached oak leaves.
Returning an hour later I had to search a long 
time before finding the rest again. At length I 
saw the head and neck of the sitting birds rising
among the leaves.
  In the woods were only a few common
birds much as Nashville, Black-throated Green and
Pine Warblers, Brown Thrashers etc.
  In a Sandy field behind Bartlets two