1892
Sept 9
(No 2)
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord. instance did I see more than one bird on
the same ear. Landing finally and walking through a 
portion of the field I found that fully one half of the
ears had been affected by the Sparrows. As a rule the
husk had been stripped down for a distance of about ten inches
from the upper (small) end of the cob and from six
to a dozen (rarely more) kernels were taken. This is apparently
as far as the bird can go without excessive effort
for the resistance increases as the husk is forced
downward. Mr. Buttrick tells me that the Sparrows have
treated his corn in this manner regularly for at
least eight years. He thinks the loss is about one
bushel per acre but the grains taken are the
poorest. The Sparrows, he says, do not work on the
corn after it has ripened or passed wholly from the
milky stage.
  As I was passing through the pretty reach just above
Hunt's Pond I saw on the edge of the pond itself, at
a distance of one hundred yards or more below me,
a Bittern standing on a mass of floating vegetation
well out from the shelter of the reeds and in the
full glare of the bright morning sun. His position
was exactly that of a fishing Night Heron the
neck being similarly stretched out and lowered
so that the bill was  only an inch or two above
the water. He stood perfectly still
for a moment then, discovering me, stretched up his
neck for an instant and after taking a good look
scuttled hurriedly off into the reeds.
[margin]Bittern fishing in sunlight at 10 a.m.[/margin]
I concealed myself & watched for half an hour but he would not