1892.
Oct. 14
(No 2)
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord. At 2 p.m. we started through the woods
for Walden. It was a walk to be remembered.
I think I have never before seen oak woods so richly
colored as these - painted woods - wine red the dominant
tint. The scarlet oaks were steeped with this color and
the undergrowth of huckleberry bushes seemed to reflect
it, as the scarlet of the maples along the river was
reflected by the water a week or more ago. Of course
the huckleberry bushes were really of the same color as
the oaks. In places they formed a rich unbroken
carpet which covered the ground as far as the eye could
reach under the trees. The old gold of young hickories
and the lemon yellow of poplars (grandidentata) gleamed
in numerous places among the oaks like patches of
sunlight.
  Birds were scarce. Two small flocks of Robins, one
among the pines in the picnic grounds, with a following
of Juncos, Yellow-rumps & Chickadees, a few Jays
and a flock of about a dozen Crows feeding in the
tops of some chestnuts at Holden were about all that
I saw. Where are the Spotted Thrushes this year?
I have seen only one Olive-back and one Hermit
this autumn.
  Walden was very beautiful indeed the water deep
blue & ruffled with wind, the woods about its 
shores most rich in autumn tints.
  I picked up a young Tree Toad no bigger than a
Pickering's Hylas & of a pale fawn color very like a
Wood Frog for which indeed I at first mistook it.
Heard only one Pickering's Hylas today.
  Reached home as twilight was falling.