Concord, Mass.
1893  
Aug 14                                                                                            
  Clear with strong N. wind and bracing air. Frosts
reported from N.Vermont last night.
 The sultry, oppressive weather came to an end on
the evening of the 12th when there was a light thunder
shower with a good deal of wind. Yesterday was
much like to-day, bracing & cool.
  Both yesterday  and to-day I went to Balls' Hill
in the afternoon sailing down and paddling back
after a call at the cabin and a short walk in
the woods. On the 12th I spent the day at the
cabin with C. & M. & Mrs. H.
  Yesterday I watched some Bobolinks working at
the wild rice. They were eating the grain which, on
examination, I found soft & milky and barely half
grown. The bird would select a stalk that had been
bent down by the wind or rain and feeding directly
beneath its head on some stout upright stem would
reach up and pick out grain after grain without
moving its foothold. Thus they worked busily but
with great deliberation and for the most part in
perfect silence but occasionally the chink call would
be given & answered by scattered birds. They were
difficult to see among the densely growing reeds.
Once I thought I disturbed a bird eating the
withered staminate flowers of the Zizania but I
may have been deceived. I am very sure, however,
that Bobolinks & Redwings eat these flowers
early in the season before the grain has formed.