1890  
May 18
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Evening at Pout Pond
Clear and cool. Wind S.E. changing to S.W. at sunset.
  To the Fresh Pond swamps with F.M. [?Chapman] at 6 P.M.
Entered by the wood road skirting the east side of the [?Pine]
Swamp. Six or eight Grackles flying about in the swamp
opposite Barker's and evidently nesting there. On the edge of
the bog east of [?Pont] Pond a Carolina Rail singing. We
passed within a few  yards of him but could not see
him although he was in a narrow strip of thin, short
grass between us and the water. Several others
were uttering the "whinny" at frequent intervals.
Crossing the brook we took a station on the Fitchburg
R.R. tracks north of the swamp having the broadest
part of the cat-tail belt between us and Pont Pond. 
The south wind brought sounds distinctly to our
ears from these cat-tails and in the course of the
hour or more which intervened between our arrival and
the setting in of complete darkness we heard many
interesting birds.
  Just after reaching our station we saw a Wood Duck
rise from Pont Pond and fly out over the Great Meadows
finally alighting in Alewife Brook. Later two more 
came in to the pond skimming low down past us
from the direction of Buch Island. Two Marsh Wrens
(palustris) were singing steadily in the cat-tails near
the railroad; Red-wings and Swamp Sparrows on
all sides of us. 
  We had scarcely taken our stand when the
mysterious bird heard last June in the meadow
south of the Mass. Central track uttered the same
prolonged, Cuckoo-like outcry near the outlet of
Pont Pond. Scarcely had its notes died away when