1893 
April 23  
(No. 2)                                                                     
Concord Mass.
Returning to the boat after a long walk I hoisted                                
sail and skinned swiftly down river past the
cabin to Davis's Hill. The wind was abating fast, the
sun nearly behind the crest of the western hills. A
Robin and several Red wings singing and a grand
clamor of Hylas & Wood Frogs in the pond holes near
the river. On the Bedford shore a Flicker shouted
several times. I listened vainly for Doves. Why
have they been so utterly silent of late?
[margin]Birds 
singing at 
sunset[/margin]
  As I ran the boat ashore at the bars near the mouth 
of Davis's Brook a Cooper's Hawk began crying in the
tall pines just north of the glacial hollow. It made
a singular sound, the same that I have noted on two
recent occasions, creur varied to cre-eur repeated from
three to six times in slow,drawling, asthmatic tones.
It reminded me by turns of the scream of a Jay with a
bad cold (if jays are ever afflicted in this manner), of
the whe-e-o of a husky voiced, Red shouldered Hawk
and the meow of a Cat-bird. The last comparison
satisfied me best for it was decidedly a mewing cry
although not to be mistaken for that of the Cat Bird
being much louder and more emphatic as well as more
drawling. Approaching cautiously I saw the bird sail
from one pine to the next & then across an opening
to an oak where i got my glass on it & saw that 
it was a large female. Then it saw me and started
off over the swamp giving a single creur immediately
followed by a basking ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca which I
have not heard before. There is a nest of stick in one of
these pines & the hawks are probably intending to breed there
(I noted the above cries on the spot)