1891
March 25
(No. 2)
knoll beyond flying very fast and nearly 100 feet
above the earth when above the bed of Beaver Brook.
What disturbed them I do not know; certainly not
our carriage for they rose among the pines at
least 100 yds. from the road. 
  The Willows were wonderfully beautiful as we
entered their eastern end, the sunlight bringing 
out their old gold tints and lying lovingly on
the long, straight reach of road that [delete]stretched[/delete] led
away across the great, half flooded meadow. There
were hosts of Song Sparrows here. Indeed we must
have heard nearly a dozen and others were continually
flitting across the road or rustling through the dry 
grass on its borders. Two Rusty Blackbirds rose
from the flooded meadow and alighted in the
top of a maple uttering their tinkling medley.
In the woods at the western end six or eight
Crows were sitting in pairs in the tops of the tall
oaks. A red-wing, the only one seen during the 
day, was singing in the top of a hickory under
which we drove without disturbing him. 
  We drove past the Bryant farm to the
Theodore Parker place and then returned. Just 
before reaching the Bryant farm we started a
musk rat*[muskrat] from the road where, on the edge
of a pond of rain water, he was sitting in the
sun. He floundered and skipped over and
through the shallow water in mad haste and
finally disappeared in a half submerged stone
wall. 
  After putting up the horse we started out on