1893
May 22
(No 4)
Concord, Mass
Ball's Hill.
  A pair of Creepers (Mniotilta varia) have spent
the greater part of yesterday and to-day in or
beneath the small black oak which stands at the
S[outh] E[ast] corner of the cabin. The female is on the ground
much of the time, hopping about like a Sparrow apparently
feeding but confining her attention to a few square 
feet of turf over which she has worked back and forth most
persistently. She is absurdly tame allowing us to get
within a yard or less. Once I nearly stepped on her
before she flew. She and her mate call to each other
every half minute or less uttering a low chip curiously
like that of Certhia. What [delete]the[/delete] attraction this spot
furnishes I cannot imagine.
(As I am writing this (May 23) the female Creeper
has just alighted on the side of the cabin and
is climbing up the logs that form the wall evidently
looking for insects. Now I hear her hopping about
on the tin roof over my head.)

[margin]A queer pair
of Mniotiltas[/margin]

  Cedar Birds appeared near the cabin to-day (22nd)
- a pair of them, sitting in the tops of blossoming 
young oaks and launching out after flying insects.
They are the first that I have seen in Concord
this year.
[margin]Cedar Birds
arrive[/margin]

  The King Birds that began building on Honeysuckle
Island May 16 have finished their nest. I examined
it this evening &[and] found lining &[and] all complete. It is
curiously placed in a stout, upright fork of a large willow about
4 f[ee]t above the water in the centre of a cluster of upright
stems at least 10 f[ee]t below the foliage twigs. The stems at
the fork are as large as my wrist. A Robin might have chosen
just such a site.
[margin]King Bird's
nest in 
upright
fork[/margin]