1889
June 6
Brookline, Massachusetts
Clear and cool with strong N.W. wind.
  Met Dr. W. Faxon in Boston this afternoon and
went with him to Brookline by horse-car to hear the
Least Bitterns which Mr. Francis has reported as breeding
regularly each season in a cat-tail swamp along Muddy River.
  Upon reaching our destination we were joined by Francis
and by Dr. Faxon's brother and together we spent about two
hours listening to the sounds that came from the swamp.
Before sunset we heard only Red-winged Blackbird and
Long-billed Marsh Wrens, not over two or three different
males of the latter but scores of the former. In fact
I have never before seen as many Red-wings congregated
within a like area, in the breeding season.
  As twilight began to fall a Carolina Rail occasionally
uttered its snickering cry and after it became dark
one began the cut, cutta-cutta-cutta cry and kept it
up at intervals until we left the place. A little after
sunset we heard two different Least Bitterns, cooing. They
were perhaps 100 yds. apart and nearly that distance
from us. The sound reminded me, as when I heard
it at Wayland in 1887, of the cooing of a tame
Pigeon. Francis says they have a wholly different set of
notes which he compares to the song of a Marsh Wren.
He thinks they utter it chiefly when alarmed by
the movements of intruders, such as egg seeking boys,
although he has heard it when no one was in
the swamp. We heard a Song Sparrow in this
swamp but no Swap Sparrows.
  The entire swamp contains possibly eight or ten
acres of cat-tail flags which extend along both sides
of Muddy River, a sluggish, winding creek of ten yards