1892
May 6
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord. - Sunny morning, cloudy afternoon; rather warm
with W. wind.
  Walk to Damsdale via Derby's lane at 10.30 a.m.
A Yellow-winged Sparrow singing in the field opposite the
Buttrick's: – an early arrival for this species. Following up
the sound I found the bird sitting, in the usual
crouching attitude, among the upper branches of an
apple tree.
[margin]Yellow-winged
Sparrow arrives[/margin]
  Grass Finches and Least Flycatchers were singing in
or near all the orchards along my path and I
heard a Bobolink in Derby's meadow. Opposite the
entrance to Derby's lane a Brown Thrasher, sitting in
the top of a gray birch was flooding the air with
music. I sat down on a wall near him and listened
long and attentively, comparing the performance with
that of the Song Thrush of England which is still
fresh in my memory. The two are very similar but
that of our bird is, as I confessed to myself this
morning, undeniably inferior. It is more rapid and
confused and has fewer round, full notes.
[margin]Song of the
Brown Thrasher[/margin]
  Entering Derby's lane I heard Ruby-crowned Kinglets all
around me in the young hemlocks scolding and
occasionally even singing. There was also a Hermit Thrush.
A little further on in gray birches above the path were
more Kinglets, a Yellow Palm Warbler, a Chestnut sided,
and a Nashville Warbler. More Palm Warblers and
many Yellow-rumps along the edge of the alders in
the meadow below.
  As I approached these alders a Bittern rose above
and beyond them and flew off up the Damsdale
meadow. I was wondering what had startled it