1893  
April 20 
(No 2)  
Concord, Mass.
Ball's Hill
I saw two Flickers (a pair, incidently and heard                                                                                                                                                    
another. One was clinging to the edge of a hole in                                       
a river maple, where a brood were reared last year,
looking in as if considering the advisability of
occupying the premises another season. On watching
these Flickers attentively as I drove them before me
down river I found that during the undulating or
"galloping" flight they invariably gain only one stroke
of the wings at each bound. This is true, doubtless, 
of all the members of the family. The Flicker, however, 
often flies much like a Robin flapping steadily
and moving on a level plain.
[margin]Flickers[/margin]
  When in a tree or standing on the ground a Crow
nearly if not always accompanies each utterance of
the caw by bending forward, stretching out the neck to
its full length, and jerking the head forward and
down with some violence, the bill being opened very wide
at the moment the sound is produced. I have
not observed anything of this kind when the caw
is given during flight.
[margin]Crows[/margin]
  Red-winged Blackbirds desert the river meadows &
thickets during cold, windy weather at this season & in
[delete]forming[/delete] large flocks resort to upland fields and pastures.
I saw such a flock in the fields near the W. Bedford
station today.
[margin]Red winged Blackbirds[/margin]
  Hylas were in full blast yesterday afternoon & evening
in meadows and ponds, hundreds piping in one spot
I heard a few Wood Frogs also. Both silent today
[margin]Hylas[/margin]