brood of five or six young as large as Robins. She made a 
perfect medley of sounds some of which resembled the honking
of Nuthatches, others the call of the [?] Gallinule. As we
were watching her a Yellow-billed Cuckoo sang in the oaks
near us. 
  As we were descending the hill beyond we heard the 
first Hermit Thrush, a fine performer. Just after 
reaching the main road we came into a perfect colony of
these Thrushes as many as five males being in full
song around us at one time. I went in pursuit of
one but found him shy. After following him about for
some time I caught sight of what I supposed to be
he but after firing four shots with my pistol and 
at last bringing down my bird (the first shot wounded 
it badly) I found I had killed a [female] that had
recently finished incubating. As I was plugging her throat
with cotton a fine adult Cooper's Hawk scaled over my head
within 20 yds or less. 
  We heard Hermits at intervals all the way from 
here to Teaticket. Towhees were also singing freely and
Cat-birds were in fairly good song also. In some pitch
pine woods we heard two Pine Warblers singing. Also
heard D. virens, Geothlypis trichas, D. discolor and an 
occasional Field Sparrow. The Brown Thrashers are severely 
silent but Robins and Grass Finches were singing
freely at sunset. It was a delightful evening, the air 
very clear and still and very fragrant with the scent
of pines, sweet fern, wild grape blossoms and perhaps a
dozen other things that we could not identify.