1892
Oct. 21
(No 2)
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord.- Near the Carlisle graveyard in a mixed growth
of birches and pitch pines I heard the unmistakeable
chick, chē-dēē-dēē of Parus hudsonicus repeated fifteen
or twenty times very near me but all my efforts to
get a sight at the bird failed. It was with a
small flock of Parus atricapillus which came close
about me when I "scraped" & whistled but the
Hudsonicus kept a little aloof and concealed among the
foliage of the pines although he worked around me
in a circle uttering his call excitedly when I scraped.
When I started after him he became silent. With more
time I could of course have found him but my
companions were waiting for me.
[margin]Parus hudsoni-
cus[/margin]
  Late in the day – a little before sunset – I started
a bird which I could not identify. It was in white
pine woods near the edge of a meadow and flew
from the upper branches of a pine into the next &
then to the next as I advanced beneath. It was
of about the size of a domestic Pigeon and had
sharp-pointed wings like a Hawk (Falco). I could
not make out its color. Its wings, when it started,
made a rather loud flapping sound like a Pigeon's but
its flight was erratic & moth-like, somewhat like that
of a Long-eared Owl. Where it alighted it invariably
plumped down through the pine branches for a foot
or two beating its wings noisily. What it could have
been I cannot imagine. It reminded me of a Wild
Pigeon but its flight was too slow & wavering for that
bird. I finally shot at & missed it.when it flew
out of sight through the woods.
[margin]A strange
bird.[/margin]