1893
June 19
(No 2)
Saybrook Ferry, Connecticut

 A short search among the usnea-laden red cedars
on the knoll resulted in the discovery of a beautiful nest
of the Parula Warbler containing several young fully feathered
and nearly ready to fly. They crowded the nest to its brim.
This nest like all that I have seen here, was open at
the top and  made of, not in, the usnea. There were too
males singing steadily on the knoll.
[margin] Nest of
Parula Warbler[/margin]

 After eating lunch on the grass under a birch we entered
the cat-tails, F'axon taking one side of the creek & I
the other. It was killing work for the tall, dense flags
shut off the breeze and the sun had heated the air beneath
to an almost intolerable temperature. The perspiration
fairly streamed from our faces & bodies. The walking, too,
was very laborious for there was a stiff undergrowth of
dead, last year's flags broken down & matted together.
In about two hours search I found three Bittern's
nests, one an old one, one with two eggs and two young
just hatched. The third nest was empty but a young bird
apparently only a few days old & not larger than a Song Sparrow
was perched in the flags a yard or two away. As I
approached it made off over and among the ends of the
broken, last year's flags with surprising agility stretching
its feet across from stalk to stalk & clinging to them
most tenaciously when I shook them slightly. It kept
three or four feet above the ground and moved eight
or ten feet horizontally in the course of a minute or less.
It was covered with dense, fluffy down of exactly the
same pale, faded yellowish brown as that of the heads
of the seeding cat tails which the bird also resembled
in size & shape & for one of which it might have
[margin]Nests of
Least Bittern[/margin]