1892
July 14
(No 2)
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord.- On my way down river I saw several
Spotted Sandpipers perching on dead branches of
willows or alders over the water. This habit is not of
course peculiar to any season but I think it is
much more prevalent now than in spring and
that most of these perchers are young of this year.
[margin]Spotted Sandpipers
perching on
trees.[/margin]

  A Red-tailed Hawk flying from tree to tree as I
advanced in my canoe uttered, each time it took
wing, a low choking cry apparently a modification
of the neighing note but only slightly resembling the
latter.
[margin]Red-tailed Hawk[/margin]

  During my last trip down river I noticed what I
took to be a bunch of drift [delete]weed[/delete] clinging to the
extreme end of a half-dead branch of a willow which
extended out, over the river scarce two feet above the
water. This morning, to my astonishment [delete]surprise[/delete], [delete]I found that this[/delete]
it had developed into a neatly-finished nest on which
a King Bird was sitting on one fresh egg. Both nest and bird were
absurdly conspicuous [delete]objects[/delete] and I was not surprised
when passing the spot on my return, late in the
afternoon, I found the nest empty and the bird
gone. Yet what could have taken the egg? Certainly not
a Squirrel, probably not a Jay and there are no Grackles
along the river now. I am inclined to suspect that
a Cuckoo was the thief. (I afterwards found the egg in my
canoe! In some mysterious way I must have shaken it out of the nest.)
[margin]King Bird's
nest[/margin]
  Both species of Cuckoo are now nearly silent. I
heard only one bird to-day, a Black-bill,. Does
not this lapsing into silence at this season indicate
[margin]Cuckoos.[/margin]