Evening in Fresh Pond Swamps.
1891
May 15
(no 3)
Mass
Cambridge. - in the button bushes.
  Returning to Pont Pond I entered  the swamp
and visited the Va. Rail's nest formed on the 4th.
It was empty & looks to me like a "cock" nest.
A bird was near it and followed me about calling
pe-uk as if with young. I searched closely for
nests of this Rail but found nothing. Some one
has been through the swamp since my last visit
and trampled down the tussock grass & flags.
The place was alive with Red-wings which I took
at first for its rightful inhabitants but others kept
coming in and soon after I returned to dry
land I found that they were assembling to
roost in the cat-tails! I watched them until 
dark and have noted their actions fully under Agelaius 
phoeniceus in my systematic sheets. There were a
few Crow Blackbirds & Cow-birds with them.
The night closed in cloudy and damp with a 
light sprinkle every now & then, conditions most
favorable for the Rails yet I heard only four
Soras in all and but one Virginia. The Soras
sang steadily after dark. Two were in the Pont Pond
swamp, one near the Coot pool, and one in the
big meadow. I believe that I heard all that 
there were (at least all the males) in the region
that I covered. Their scarcity this year is
doubtless due to the low stage of water. Most
of the larger meadows are nearly dry the only 
water being found in ditches & pools. Last year
the water was everywhere a foot deep on the 
meadows & waist deep in the pools and ditches