1892.
July 2
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord.- Morning clear & still with fresh, bracing air.
Clouds gathering in P.M.
  After breakfast I rode in the farm wagon to above
Cyrus Clark's walking back and taking a few
photographs by the way. Field Sparrows & Grass Finches
singing. Also a Black-billed Cuckoo. Oven bird feeding
young in the trees. 
  At 11 a.m. I started for Ball's Hill. On opening my
boat-house I was surprised to discover a great heap
of water-soaked vegetation (largely bladder wort & Pondenteria[sic: should be Pondeteria]
placed on the flooring just inside the door and built up
about the stern of one of my canoes to the height of a
foot or more. Near the center of this heap was a deep,
circular hollow as smooth and symmetrical as the
cup of a Robin's nest and about as large as the
interior of a Crow's nest. This was very neatly lined
with fine green grass, perfectly fresh, soaking wet, and
all of the same kind. A brown object slipped out
of this hollow as I threw back the door and paused
in a timid, shrinking attitude on the floor behind.
As soon as my eyes became accustomed to the
gloom I made out this animal to be a large Musk rat
and on examining the nest I found in the
bottom of the hollow six baby Musk rats, blind,
perfectly naked, with absolutely round tails, and
skin of an uniform soft mouse color above, pinkish flesh color below. They were about
as large as full grown Field Mice but were perfectly
helpless lying cuddled together in a mass and
writhing incessantly like so many big grubs just
unearthed. The mother quickly disappeared, probably
through a hole in the floor. There must have been

[margin]Musk rat's
nest with
young in
boat house.[/margin]