1891
June 1
(No 2.)
Mass.
North Truro. - not be found. A curiously pale Song
Sparrow flitting among the cat-tails was next
secured. Its peculiar coloring induced us to go in
pursuit of others which we heard singing but
after shooting four more we decided that our
first bird was exceptional & that the average style
of coloring here was in no way remarkable. 
We heard a number of Carolina Rails and an
occasional Virginia Rail or Gallinule but the last
two species were either very silent or rather scarce.
The west side of the pond has only a narrow 
border of flags and we skirted these without
seeing anything of interest save a [female] Black-poll
which Miller finally killed. It looked very peculiar
and puzzled us both until we got it in hand.
  Lunch was eaten in the boat which, meanwhile,
was allowed to drift across the middle of the
pond towards two small islands separated by a
narrow channel and covered, like all the rest
of the marshes about this pond, with  cat-tails.
  On reaching these islands we landed and
searched them closely for nests finding two,
A Florida Gallinule's with ten eggs and a
Carolina Rail's with fifteen eggs, both sets so
deeply & [extensively?] stained with mud as to be
scare recognisable. The Gallinule must have
slipped off her eggs when we landed for we
flushed her from the water just outside the
flags nearly two gunshots from the nest. She flew
across the channel and alighted on the other
island. The Rail was heard only.