1890
June 7
Lynn (or Revere B.) Marshes, Mass.
A hunt for Sharp-tailed Finches
high overhead but we could not discover it.
  While crossing the railroad bridge we saw a very large seal
in mid river. it raised its head high out of water & then slowly 
sank.
[margin]Seal[/margin]
  As we neared Oak Island a confusing medley of bird voices
came to our ears; the effect, after leaving the great [breezy?] marshes
where the wiry notes of an occasional Savanna Sparrow had alone
broken the silence, being my impression, suggesting, as Faxon
remarked, the [outburst?] of bird songs at daybreak. This attractive
little oasis certainly possesses a remarkable bird fauna. As we
were eating lunch under the shade of the oaks I made the
following list. Turdus sivainsoni, 1 [male] singing; Merula migratoria, several;
Dendroica aestiva, about 6 [male] [male]; D. striata, 1 [male]; Setophaga ruticilla, 3 [male] [male]; 
Vireo olivaceus, several [male] [male]; Melospiza meloda*[melodia], 3 [male] [male]; Icterus baltimore, 1 [male];
Agelaius phoeniceus, 3 [male] [male]; Quiscalus aeneus, six or eight; Contopus virens,
1 singing; Passer domesticus, legions. Besides these two Meadow Larks
could be just heard in the distance. No Oven Birds of M.Yellow throats.
[margin] Oak Island
bird fauna[/margin]
  Searching the marshes carefully to the westward of the Island
we got another Sharp-tail which Faxon shot among sedge on 
the edge of a creek. It proved to be an interesting specimen, 
apparently intermediate between caudacutus & [suberigatus?].
  On our way back to Oak Island station we were luckily tempted
to investigate some attractive looking Sharp-tail ground - a series of
small salt ponds bordered by narrow strips of bleached, dead grass in
a little meadow S.E. of the Island. Scarcely had we entered this place
when a Sparrow flew from the top of a stake where it had been 
sitting & pitched into the grass. Faxon shot it and we found it
to be a typical caudacutus. In the course of a few hundred yards
further we started at least five more all of which were unmistakeably
of the same form. They were shyer than the [suberigatus?], flew much 
more freely & further, and looked as dark as Savanna Sparrows. This 
is probably the place where Brackett killed his birds seven or eight years ago.
[margin]Colony of
A caudauctus[/margin]
  Returned to Boston by 4.57 P.M. train.