1892
March 17
(no 2)
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord. - way, next that so that when it finally
made up its mind to fly I was within 30 yards.
It started directly from me, not springing upward like
a Black Duck, but first spreading its great wings &
raising itself clear of the water by a powerful flap
or two and then flying swiftly off down stream
only a yard or two above the surface. Although I
reached for my gun the instant the bird opened its
wings it was fully sixty yards away before I could
pull the trigger. At the report the bird collapsed
and fell, striking the water at an acute angle and
sending up a shower of spray. Two shot had
penetrated the head and there were marks of others
in the legs and body behind. I had my 2.0 g.
gun loaded with 2 3/4 dec. of powder & 3/4 oz no 4 shot.
[margin]Death of the 
Wild Goose[/margin]
  Landing near the mouth of the brook I walked down
to Ball's Hill. Buttrick visited me about noon. As we
were standing in front of my cabin a Chipmunk, the
first I have seen, scampered past us following the line
of bushes along the river bank and occasionally
disappearing under the shore ice to reappear from 
another crack or hole several yards distant.
[margin]First Chipmunk[/margin]
  In the afternoon 19 Gooseanders in one flock, [delete]11[/delete] 9 in
another, flew past the hill about 200 feet high. They
did not follow the river but kept off over the frozen
meadows, finally rising still higher and going out
over the Great Fields in the direction of Fairhaven.
I could not make out sexual marking against the 
sky. These birds must have come up from
the Merrimac River. Do they follow the sea-coast
in their migrations and then turn into the
[margin]Gooseanders
arriving from
the south(?)[/margin]