[margin](Dictated)[/margin]
1889
June 28
Ashby, Massachusetts.
  Clear with driving masses of cumulous clouds.
Hot and sultry. Starting out at nine o'clock A.
M. we drove to Watatic, skirting around its south-
ern and western base instead of climbing it as
heretofore. Stopped first at [delete]the[/delete] a place where a
ridge bisected a meadow, the ridge covered with
hemlocks and young spruces. Heard [delete]Swamp[/delete] Hermit
Thrushes singing here, also saw three Phoebes. next stopped
in a glen where evergreen and Robble bush
grew by the road side. A pair of Red Starts
and Wilson's Thrushes here. Next to the farm-
house on the southern side of the mountain
where we put up our horse, and ate our lunch
under the shade of an apple tree on the edge of
an orchard. There was a fine view of Watatic
from this point and I took several photographs
of it. The farmer who owned the place told
me that he had lived there over forty years. When
he first moved there Pil[delete]l[/delete]eated Woodpeckers were num-
erous all through the neighboring country. Wild
Pigeons came in immense flocks in spring and
autumn, but none so far as he could re-
member had ever been found breeding. Black Ducks
used to breed abundantly in the brook meadows, 
and a great many still nest in the vicinity
but he thinks they are diminishing rapidly. He
has seen old birds this season and broods of young
within a few years while mowing in the mead-
ows. Loons still breed in some of the neighbor-
ing ponds. As we were eating our lunch a
brood of Chickadees came through the orchard