1892
Nov. 3
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord.  Most of the day cloudy the forenoon very
dark with heavy rain. The sky cleared a little before
sunset and the evening was glorious with a N. W.
wind and full moon.
  Started for Ball's Hill at 10 a.m. Stopped at
William Holden's and we went together to his hill
by the river which looked very gloomy, the trees
dripping and shrouded in mist through which
the hill, from a distance of a few hundred yards
loomed like a mountain.
  We spent most of the forenoon in running
boundary lines to this tract of woods which, after
endless talk, I finally bought. It is said to
contain about twelve acres.
  I had dinner in my cabin. It was so dark that
I actually had to light my lamp at noon and
for two hours the rain poured in torrents.
  Late in the afternoon I walked through my
swamp to the oak woods north of Benson's house
and then to Holden's where I had left my horse.
In the swamp I started two Partridges one of 
which made, while flying, a noise precisely like
that of a stick drawn rapidly across a slatted
fence or paling and so loud that I heard it
distinctly when the bird was 200 yards off. I think
there must have been some feathers (primaries)
missing from the wings.
[margin]Ruffed Grouse[/margin]
  Saw a Nuthatch (carolinensis) and three Jays in
the oak woods and two flocks of Titlarks flying
over the meadows.