1889
June 9
Cambridge, Mass.
Mass.
Cloudy or, rather, with a thin curtain of cloudy haze through which
the sun shone fully. Very hot and sultry. Light S.W. wind.
  To the swamps at 9 a.m. with Spelman. We left the buggy 
at the slaughter house and walked in to the place where we
heard the little Black Rail(?) on the 7th. He was singing again
this morning but feebly and at long intervals only. Evidently
he is a nocturnal bird. Spelman photographed his retreat.
[margin]Fresh P. Swamps[/margin]
  While here we were joined by Faxon who had been
listening, on the Central embankment, for the King Rail(?).
He had heard him three times in two hours. We
all went together to the Central and listened for
about two hours more (from 10 to 12 N.)  The big
Rail silent during this period but to our great
surprise another Little Black Rail(?) in the same cat-tail
swamp, very nearly where the Big Rail was calling on the
7th. Foxon, moreover, had heard a third Little Black Rail(?)
on Rock Meadow last night at about 8.30 p.m. "The plot
thickens!" Can there be three of these rare birds settled in
this vicinity? Our only ground for assuming that they are
P. jamaicensis is the fact that the description of the notes
of that species given in B.B. & R. Water Birds fits our birds'
call very closely.
  We heard three Virginia Rails this morning, one in the bushes
just N[orth] of Pout Pond, the other two in the big meadow.
Carolina Rails were singing intermittently, possibly six
different individuals heard.
  Cuckoos, all apparently Black-bills, very numerous calling
and flying in pairs , one following the other, back &
forth across the meadow.
  While listening for Rails we suddenly heard
the hoarse quack of a Black Duck repeated eight or ten