1892
June 15
(No 4)
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord– when as I sailed past his stronghold
on my way up river he was calling steadily at
short, regular intervals. I was surprised to find
that his notes varied in number, emphasis & form
& noted the following on the spot.
 Cŏ-cŏ, cŏ-hŏ-hò- slight but distinct emphasis on last.
 Cŏ-cŏ-cŏ-cŏ-   all equally emphasised
 Cŏ, cŏ, hŏ-hŏ   "         "           "
 Cŏ-hŏ-hŏ          "         "           "
  I passed within 20 yds. of him & at this short
distance found that the tones of his voice lost
wholly the soft, Cuckoo-like quality which it
has when the bird is far away and became almost
disagreeably hoarse & raucous as well as somewhat
hollow and vibrating.
[margin]Least Bittern[/margin]
  At the head of the Beaver-dam rapid I heard
a [delete]Carolina[/delete] Virginia Rail which uttered every few seconds
a remarkable variation of the cutter cry. Perhaps
I should say the cut cry for this note was
invariably repeated from seven to fifteen times
without any variation whatever (save in the number
of repetitions) and never without the normal
cutter addendum. The tone seemed to me less
harsh & vibrating than normal and I was
struck by the resemblance of the notes to those
of [delete]th[/delete] a common call of the Red-wing - the
clucking call I mean.
[margin]Virginia Rail[/margin]

  Yellow-billed Cuckoos are now more numerous
along the river than I have ever seen them
before & they seem to have driven out all
the Black-bills. I hear them every few
[margin]Yellow bill Cuckoos[/margin]