1889
(Dec. 12)
seemed to me, like that or a rabbit. Nevertheless the dung
was certainly Porcupine's! Some of the latter contained
undigested pieces of stringy bark.
  At about 1600 ft. in a sunny opening among scrubby spruces we
started a Ruffed Grouse, the first and only bird which we saw on
the mountain proper. It seemed incredible that there should not
be at least a few Chickadees but we covered the evergreen forest
area pretty thoroughly without hearing so much as a chirp.
  Winding around the south-east slope we finally reached the
summit where we had a remarkably fine view. We could see
the houses on Arlington Heights distinctly. The wind, however,
swept the bare peak with such force that we were glad to
descend a few rods on the sunny & sheltered side where we
lunched.
  There being evidently no birds on the mountain itself we
resolved to descend to the base and circle back through the
more sheltered woods below. We were separated and I was forcing
my way through some rather dense spruces in one of the
lower pastures when I came suddenly on a flock of Pine
Grosbeaks. I took the first I saw, a fine red [male], for a Robin as
it flitted across an opening but soon discovered my mistake &
shot the bird. As I was wrapping him in paper the others
returned and clustering in the top of a spruce began eating
the terminal buds when I picked out another red bird &
shot him also.
  Faxon now overtook me and kept on towards our starting
point flushing two Grouse along the edge of the big swamp
where we heard the Contorpus borealis last June. One of these
Grouse rose from an open field near the swamp, the other
among mountain laurel. Both were very wild.
  Near the road we saw a Shrike, a very brown bird which
suddenly appeared with a field mouse in his bill and alighting
for a moment, flew again into some birches where we lost him.