1891
May 21
(no 4)
Afternoon in the Fresh Pond Swamps.
Mass.
Cambridge. - unfavorable for the free singing of the 
smaller birds and comparatively few were heard.
Even the Swamp Sparrows were almost wholly
silent.
  We found a number of Swamp sparrows nests but
all were empty except one which contained four
naked, newly-hatched young. Jeffries started the
bird off and is very sure that it was a Swamp 
Sparrow. I did not see her but the nest was
typical in construction and position. I am surprised
that it should have had young at so early a
date but there is just a possibility that it
may have been a Song Sparrow's. 
[margin]Swamp Sparrow's nest with young[/margin]
   Four or five times on the afternoon of the 18th
I thought I heard a Bittern pumping in the
distance beyond Little River. The same thing
happened this afternoon. Once I got four
successive pumps faintly but, as I thought at the
time, quite unmistakably. Afterwards I began to
suspect that I might have been deceived. If
it was really a Bittern it is the first that
I have ever heard pumping in the Fresh Pond
marshes.
[margin]Bittern pumping?[/margin]
  A few toads were trilling and i heard one
give the summer squawk which is now supposed
to be characteristic of the subspecies B. fowleri.
[margin]Toads[/margin]
  I also heard the first bull frog.
[margin]First Bull Frog[/margin]
  No migrants were seen or heard during the
afternoon. There was an Oven Bird in my garden
yesterday. Bolles reports Blackpoll Warblers in
the College yard yesterday & to-day. I have heard none
this season as yet.