1891.
May 24
(No.4)
Mass[achusetts].
Canoe trip on Concord River.
Wayland to Concord. - at (Sherman's Bridge). Ball's Hill - [S.O.D.?]
  After getting our canoes ready for the night
we climbed Ball's Hill to see the sun set. Its
last rays streaming through a rent in the 
clouds that were massing in the west threw
a strange, lurid light over the broad meadow
intensifying its uniform green coloring to an
almost painful degree, then leaving it suddenly
in gloom which deepened rapidly as the shades
of night fell. A bittern was pumping in the
usual place and a Carolina Rail singing fitfully.
Once I caught the notes of a Virginia Rail
also. Five Night Herons appeared high in [the] air
from down river and passed directly over
the meadow and beyond the woods towards
Fairhaven but a sixth which quickly followed
them wheeled a few times and descending in
a graceful spiral alighted in the grass.
[margin]Bittern
Rail
Night 
Herons[/margin]
  On the east side of the hill under the lee
of the white pines at least 30 Chimney Swifts
were dashing about in mazy courses. We could
see that the air was filled with small gawzy
winged insects on which the birds were doubtless
feeding. After we had returned to the canoes
and when it was nearly dark a Wilson's Thrush
sang several times near us. Then the night 
closed in with a cloudy sky and damp, chilly
wind which blew directly in on us from the
south, but we soon started a fire and passed
a pleasant evening within its cheery circle of
light. A pair of large dogs a Collie & a St. Bernard
paid us a visit at about 9 o'clock.
[margin]Chimney
Swifts[/margin]