Waltham to Riverside
June 21 1890  Morning on Charles River
Cloudless but hazy with pale sun and strong S.W. wind.
  Met Faxon at Waverley at 7.25 A.M. (driving up from Cambridge) and went with him by train to Riverview, Waltham, 
where we hired a boat and rowed to the stone bridge 
just below Riverside returning to Waltham at noon and 
driving from there home.
  The special object of our trip was to search for a 
Prothonotary Warbler which Kennard found just below 
the stone bridge on June 16th but we failed in this for 
the very good reason, as I learned afterwards, that 
Kennard had shot his bird yesterday.  We settled on 
the place where he had been, however, and watched 
and listened there for a half hour or more. It was 
a pretty little nook, surrounded by woods and fringed 
with button bushes with a flooded point separating it 
from the river.
  We heard and saw a great number of common 
birds for the thickets along the river seem to afford 
exceptionally good grounds. Cat-birds were particularly 
numerous. One was decidedly the finest singer I have 
ever listened to. His voice was very Thrush-like and he 
did not indulge at all in the usual musical gymnastics 
but sang steadily like a Robin in low, earnest tones.
  While on the top of Norumbega tower we heard twice 
what we both felt very sure was the distant phe-beavi 
of Contopus borealis. Of course we at once followed the 
direction of the sound but the bird could not 
be found although the locality was just such 
as they used to frequent in this region.