Concord, Mass.
1893 
Aug. 14 (No 2)                                                                              
  Kingbirds at this season roost in little  parties                                          
(each consisting, probably, of a brood of young with one
or both parents) on leafy branches of willows or
white maples which stretch out over the water. Last
night , as well as on another recent occasion, I
startled three or four birds after dark, from the
same branch, hitting the end of the branch
with my head or shoulder which paddling past
in a canoe.
[margin]Kingbirds 
roost in 
family parties 
over water[/margin]
  The Yellow - throated Vireo and Song Sparrow are                                     
the only birds which I have heard singing freely
and vigorously the past two days but this
evening an Oriole fluted several times in succession
in the elms near our home. The three species
just named were literally all that I heard to-day.
[margin]Birds still 
singing[/margin]
  Two great flocks of Swifts, one containing about                                        Swifts
twenty, the other over thirty birds, were flying about
over the river a little before sunset this evening; one
flock was near Holdens' Hill, the other over the
Rice Island. Neither flock changed its position or
showed any tendency to drift, the birds being engaged in feeding,
darting to & fro within narrow limits at an
average height of forty or fifty feet. They were
very silent. I think the young have left
the chimneys now as I have seen no old birds
flying about the houses for two nights past.
On the night of 12th I heard one rumbling
in our chimney, however.