1892
July 21
(No 2)
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord.- I had supposed that our large Mud
Tortoise never crawled out of the water merely for
the sake of basking in the sun and Mr. Buttrick
has been strongly of this opinion but we were
mistaken for to-day I saw one that would have
weighed 15 to 20 lbs. stretched out fast asleep on
a raft made of old railroad sleepers [delete]which was[/delete]
floating in the river just above Hunt's Pond. I
paddled silently towards it hoping to get near
enough to take a photograph but a little Snapping
or Musk Tortoise which lay near it gave the alarm
by tumbling into the water where its big companion
promptly followed [delete]it going in[/delete] with a mad rush
which reminded me of that of a startled Alligator.
[margin]Mud Tortoise[/margin]

  The ♀[female] Carolina Dove was on her nest when I visited
it at 3 P.M. to-day although the young are now
so large (fully one-half grown) that the parent bird
had great difficulty in covering them and appeared
to be standing rather than sitting on the nest.
They (the young) were to-day feathered over the back as well as
wings the only visable[sic] down being on the head. As on former
occasions they sat crouched in the nest facing in opposite
directions and keeping perfectly motionless. The parent acted
as usual taking a short curving downward flight from the
nest, alighting on a bush, then rising & disappearing.
I sat down under a pine about 20 yds. from the nest &
waited half-an-hour. At the end of the first 10 minutes
the parent returned but seeing me flew away without
alighting & [delete]I[/delete] did not again come back. While I was watching
the nest a Sharp-shinned Hawk passed on a level
[margin]Dove's nest√√[tick marks][/margin]