1887
Nov. 9
Belmont, Mass.
Clear and still. Early morning sharp & frosty, soon warm.
  To Prospect St. Belmont at 10 A.M. Taking lunch
and otherwise prepared to spend the day. 
  In the cedar woods near the fork of the roads I
found a very large flock of Chickadees among which 
were about a dozen Kinglets (satrapa) and a single
Certhia. Robins were also numerous and there were a 
few Juncos and a single Colaptes besides several Blue
Jays. Goldfinches and Pine Linnets were heard passing
overhead every now and then. There were also a few
Purple Finches feeding with the Robins on cedar berries.
  I killed two Robins (one a fine ad [male[) at a shot as they 
sat int he top of a cedar and wounded the Certhia. While 
searching for him I heard the piping chatter of Red 
Crossbills and hurrying towards the spot discovered a 
flock of about a dozen in the top of one of the tall
pitch pines in the western end of the woods. There were
some very richly colored [male] [male] among them and I tried to
get two of them together but the flock was of in a  
few seconds after I arrived under them & I had only a 
flying shot at a single bird which I missed. They alighted 
again in another pine but only stayed long enough 
for me to get almost near enough. 
  In the old orchard where I paused to look in the 
Owl hole (it was empty but I found a chalk mark
beneath it) there were two Dendroica coronata flitting 
from tree to tree.
  Entering the oak scrub beyond I descended to the
large swamp at its base. On reaching it "Don" began 
to draw on what I soon decided to be the rather
cold scent of a bevy of Quail. He followed it entirely 
around this swamp, through a belt of birches to the