1893
May 22 
(No 3) 
Concord, Mass.
from it to some bushes a few yds off, when startled,                                           
her flight being in every way normal. the other two birds
follow for several yards before flying, shrinking behind clods
& tufts of grass. One of them half spreads his wings and
simulates la [?] but not with much realism or energy.
Why should one of those birds' fly?  perhaps she has
learned that the skulking act does not always [?].
Certainly as far as I am concerned the other plan
has proved the more successful for it was not until
I flushed her several times that I began to suspect
that there was a nest.
[margin]Balls' Hill  Song Sparrow[/margin]


( My next visit to the nest near the cabin wa on
May 23rd at 3 P.M. when I found the fourth
egg hatched. If this egg was the last one laid, as
seems probable, it has hatched in just 12 days.
the parent birds was absent when I looked at
the nest on the 23rd but half an hour later she
flew from the nest a I passed it.  [?] to she
has always seen a few yards before taking wing.
She & her mate have become accustomed to
my presence that they show no great anxiety and
do not even chirp when I look at the nest.
On May 29th the young in this nest were fully half grown
and covered with feathers on the back & wings yet the mother bird
was"brooding" them.  There eyes opened either on this day or the 28th.)