June 24, 1891
England.
(no 4)
Chester - recalled then of our Wood [?] but its
form was short and stout and it kept flirting
its tail up and sideways in a curious way
and uttering a wiry squeak which seemed to
be its only note.
  Passing through a belt of woods I came
to a stretch of open fields. Swallows and
Swifts were flying here in considerable
numbers. The notes of the Swallows (H. rustica)
were exactly like those of our Barn Swallow,
both the short call and the long musical
twitter.
  Suddenly a grotesque bird of large size
appeared high in air over these fields. Its flight
was vacillating & labored recalling a Night hawk's. 
The wings were short and rounded their tips
ragged looking. The head looked as big as an
Owl's, the colors black. The bird seemed unable
to manage itself and at times appeared as if
tumbling over in the air. It must have been 
a Lapwing.
  It was nearly dark when, retracing my steps,
I came to another field, thickly studded with
whitewood, where I expected to hear a Cow
Crake. Sure enough he was hard at it. [delete]at[/delete]
Crex-crex-crex, a vibrating, locust-like cry! It
was repeated about twice each second for from
ten to thirty seconds, then, after a pause of a
minute or two, it would begin again, the bird
moving his station each time.
  Back to my lodgings at 10 P.M.
Saw a ghost-moth. No crickets, fire flies, toads or angle worms. One snail a 
shelless larval creature long & whitish.