1890
June 5
Cambridge & Waverley, Mass.
a large basket to where Denton stood awaiting me.
  We saw few birds of interest this morning save
a Sparrow Hawk which poised over the swamp until
the Red-wings attacked and drove him off and a 
Least Bittern flushed by Faxon from a bed of
cat-tails. The latter must be breeding hen.
We found many Red-wings nests with young and started
not a few young which had left the nests and taken to
the bushes but none of the latter were really strong on 
the wing.
  Late in the afternoon I drove to Waverley and
spent the evening with Faxon who had promised me
a chance to hear a Gray-checked Thrush sing. This bird
had sung for three days in early morning & late evening
in a thicket near F's house. He disappointed us to-night
by leaving the thicket before we could get there but I 
heard him sing several times at a distance of about
150 yds. The song was wonderfully like the Veery's at that
distance and his phew call almost identical with the
latter's.
  I heard many other common birds but Faxon tells me
that the singing of birds generally is declining fast.
A Cat-bird near his house almost ceased and he
hears Meadow Larks and Bobolinks much less frequently
than we did a week ago.