Cambridge & Watertown, Mass.
1893
Dec. 7
  Cloudy and calm. A dense blue haze shrouding the
landscape. 
  Winter came suddenly this year - on the 5th when
about eight inches of snow fell. It has been cold since
and the sleighing is now excellent. I drove around
Mt. Auburn and Fresh Pond this morning with C.
The river was full of floating ice over which a few
Crows were hovering. In the pitch pine woods just
beyond where Arsenal Brook passes under the road
six Robins flew out as we approached. All looked 
like males. A Flicker was also seen on this stretch
of road.
  Fresh Pond was open (some of the coves were frozen over)
and at least three hundred Herring Gulls were resting
near the middle floating on the water in a broad
straight band two hundred yards or more in width.
I saw nearly double as many in the same place
last month. The park watchmen it is said shoot
at these birds a good deal with rifles in the
vain attempt to drive them away from the pond
because they are thought to pollute the water being,
as one of the men said to my informant, "unclean
birds". The amount of lead which is disharged [discharged]
into the water does not seem to be considered. The 
truth of the matter is that Clark, the head of the
park force, is a [delete]old[/delete] sportsman (he used to shoot
Ducks on the pond in the old days) and he
is glad to invent a pretext for indulging in this
task.