1892.
Feb. 1
Concord, Massachusetts.
To Ripley's Hill
Mass.                                               
Concord. Cloudy, dead calm, warm.
  To Ripley's Hill at 5 P.M. As I approached
the edge of the pitch pine grove I heard a Partridge
fly and immediately after, another. From the
sound I suspected that at least one of them had
"treed" so I advanced into the grove very slowly
and silently, scanning each tree closely from top
to base. I had gone about 30 yards without hearing
anything when suddenly two birds started out
of the trees with a prodigious uproar of wings,
one just after the other, both going off over the
swamp. Neither was within 30 yds. of me when it
flew. A moment after this a third Partridge
went out of a pine fully 40 yards from where
I was standing. One of the three must have taken
to its tree before I reached the top of the hill
for I am sure that only two birds started from
the ground in the first instance. They had
all chosen perches well up in the trees. The two
which I saw the quickest after they had spread
their wings had evidently been sitting on short, stout
branches some three or four feet from the main stem,
twelve or fifteen feet from the top of the tree, and
perhaps thirty feet above the ground.
[margin]3 Partridges
together[/margin]
[margin]They take
to the trees[/margin]
  Descending to the swamp I found the thin coating
of snow which covered the frozen ditches
marked thickly with rabbit tracks. I also saw
what I took to be the track of a mink.
Beside the Partridges I met with no birds
except some Chickadees which I heard but did
not actually see.
[margin]Mink track[/margin]