Jun 17 1887
several Rails along the brook evidently [female]s with young
for they kept calling anxiously and running around
me within a few paces, unseen in the tangled herbage.
It was intensely hot in this meadow and I
was only too glad to get back to the river a little
before noon. I heard the same Buteo lineatus screaming
over the swampy woods bordering Lar[?[ Brook to-day
and another new one later, near the foot of the great
Sudbury Meadow.
  Lunched under the lower Wayland bridge, a delightfully
cool, retired spot with dragonflies rustling past and 
fishes playing about my canoe. The stone arches of
the bridge sprinkled all over with the grotesque dried
skins of larvae of dragonflies. It was hard to realize
that the brilliant, graceful green and gold creatures
skimming about were their former occupants.
  Paddled part of the way down the great meadow
and sailed the rest, landing over the search for
Long-billed Marsh Wren's eggs. I shot a pair of the birds
and found at least a dozen empty (false) nests
but not one occupied one.
  Reaching Pantry Brook I made a vain attempt 
to paddle up to the short-bill Wren grounds but
after struggling through a tangled bed of water plants
for a few hundred yards I was glad to return.
  Sailed most of the way from this brook to
Sherman's Bridge.  The wind was very light - a mere
breath - and It finally died wholly. A superb
concert of birds by the way. Tanagers, Grosbeaks, Robins,
Red-eyes, Veeries, Bobolinks, Oven Birds, etc. in the
woods and meadows.
  Nothing of much interest at or below Fairhaven. However
at 7.30 P.M.