1892. 
Oct. 31
(No 2)
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord.   As I was about to start this morning I 
heard a bird singing much like a Thrasher but more
disconnectedly and after looking in my directive finally
discovered the author of the sound, a Shrike, sitting
on the topmost spray of one of the elms in front
of our  house. He remained there, singing at intervals,
for ten minutes or more. There was a Brown Creeper
in the tree & Sparrows on the weeds below but he
paid no attention to them. He looked very white.
Another Shrike, a brown bird, which I saw later
in the day near the Parker lot was apparently
catching grasshoppers, flying down to the ground in
a pasture & back to the tops of scattered trees
never returning to the same tree but moving on
in the same general direction (N.W.) at each flight.
Although I walked my fastest I could not get
within shot of him.
[margin]Northern Shrike singing[/margin]
  I flushed a Great Blue Heron from a small
brook meadow near Rose Hill.
  There were few small birds along the roadsides
today except Juncos & Robins. I saw one flock 
of about ten Fox Sparrows.
  Partridges appeared to be numerous two weeks
ago but they almost scarce now as they
were last season. I flushed only six today
& saw a seventh in the scrub in woods. It
strikes me that they do not venture out into
the alder runs & birch coves nearly as much
as they did in the old times.