1890 
June 19         
Revere Beach, Massachusetts
 Trip after Sharp-tailed Finches' eggs
Clear and warm with pleasant W. breeze
  To Oak Island by 9A.M. train meeting Faxon by appoint-
ment in the meadow where we found the Sharp-tails last 
week, he coming across the marshes this morning from Saugus. 
On the way he saw only our Sharp-tail, which he thought 
was sub-origatus, but which he was unable to shoot.
  I found a nest of caudacutus within five minutes of leaving 
the cars and before I entered the marsh.  I was walking down 
the railroad when the bird came flying past me and 
alighting on the edge of a pool took a thorough bath. It then 
flew back in the direction whence it had come and dropped 
into a narrow strip of grass between the railroad & the fence that 
bounds the marsh. I went to the spot, flushed it under foot 
and the next instant saw the nest prettily concealed under 
some dry grass and raised five or six inches above the ground. 
There were four eggs.  I left three for Faxon to see but at 4 P.M. 
when we returned two of them had hatched.
  Faxon found the second nest.  We saw a bird alight and sing 
in the grass directly over it and this induced F. to look 
for it.  It held four eggs which seemed to be deserted & rotten.  
The third nest I found on the edge of a ditch raised several 
inches above the ground in a tuft of grass. There were four 
eggs.  The bird was sitting on our second visit but we had 
to go a third time and, after flushing her, chase her 
for some distance before we could make sure of her.  
The fourth nest containing five young well feathered and nearly 
old enough to fly was betrayed by the parent bird which 
flew to it about once each minute with food in her bill 
& then went back bearing the excrement sacs of the young.  
The latter made a pretty picture in the nest their mouths 
as yellow as gold, their plumage already showing most of  