1888
June 18  
Winchendon, Massachusetts,
Clear and very hot.
  At 9 a.m. took horse &[and] buggy & drove to Wellington's
Reservoir distant five miles from town to the N. As we
passed through the main street of Winchendon heard
an Oriole (I. baltimore) a warbling trio, several Least Flycatchers
and numerous Robins. Outside the town the road led
through a comparitively level country with pastures alternating
with woodland, the latter largely of deciduous trees with
occasional groves of pines &[and] now &[and] then a dense body of black
spruces &[and] hemlocks. At length we reached the Reservoir a long
narrow winding street of water coincidently formed by damming
a river. Near the outlet it was shallow & sprinkled with
floating islands & bristling stumps & shrubs, further up
broader &[and] clear water, perhaps here originally, as now, a
pond. A farmer told us that loons bred there every
season. He thought there were at least four pairs this
year. He hears them  "squalling" every night. They fly
back & forth from & neighboring ponds. He also sees
flocks of Ducks through the summer. Thinks most of
them are "Dipper-ducks" They are small & dark colored.
He saw a few swallows over the pond & I took them
to be Tree Swallows but they were too far off to be
surely determined.
  During our drive out & backI heard only one D.blackburn-
ian & our Solitary vireo.  D. searched for the nest of
the latter & quickly found it, 6ft. up in a hemlock, not
quite finished. Indigo Birds were apparently numerous
for saw three [male] & one [female]. Heard a cat-bird &
numerous D pennsylvanica.  A fine cock Grouse sitting
on a log by the roadside allowed us to drive past without
flying. When we stopped he shook his ruff a few times &