1892.
Aug. 3
(No 2)
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord. the French's landing. Green Frogs are still noisy
at times and the Bull Frog is also often heard but
the height of the song season has passed with both.

  What does the "song flight" of the King bird mean?
It puzzles me more and more as I watch, and think
of it. It can hardly be a manifestation of love or masculine
virility, as are the song flights of most birds, for I witness
it very much oftener now than I did in May and
June. All this afternoon, at short intervals, birds, many
of which were accompanied by full-grown young, were
mounting into the air over the meadows and tumbling
and plunging about in the usual erratic manner. It
occurs at this season at all hours of the day and
quite as frequently in the early afternoon as at sunset.
I seldom now see a bird go up when the weather is
cloudy or raining, however.
[margin]Song flight
of the Kingbird[/margin]

  I had a delightful sail this evening from the head
of Fairhaven to Clam-shell Hill with the gorgeous sunset
before me the whole way. The breeze was so steady
that I actually cooked some eggs with my alcohol
lamp placed under the hatch of the canoe directing
my course the while by an occasional touch on the
foot-steering gear and afterwards eating my supper
while gliding silently down the placid river between
the rows of bordering button bushes still draped in
creamy-white masses of fragrant flowers.