1894
June 13
Cambridge, Mass.
  I took a walk this evening to the old Brickyard
Swamp in the hope of hearing a chat which Faxon
found there the other day in the thickets between
the Watertown[?] Branch R.R. and the clay pits. The
bird was either silent or gone but I heard or
saw many other interesting things.
[margin]Evening walk
to the Fresh
Pond Swamps[/margin]
  The greedy steam shovel has eaten up at least
nine tenths of these my old familiar shooting
grounds and to effectively drained the remainder
that the character of the place & its farms[?] are
materially changed. The low button bushes are most
either gone or buried beneath the foliage of a variety
of tall, rank growths among which I noted willows[?],
wild cherries and viburnums. The place was swiftly
alive with Yellow Warblers and Song Sparrows but I heard
neither Red-wings nor Swamp Sparrows. It is probably
too dry for them.
A Kingfisher and a Green Heron flew over the swamp
as I stood looking at it loudly thinking of the
good old days when it [?] Ducks, Swift and
Rails in numbers that I shall never see hereabouts again.
The little pond where I shot my first Duck (a 
Pi[?]tail) and Florida Gallinule is still unchanged
save by the growth of the surrounding trees & bushes but
the steam shovel is already eating its way under its
eastern edge where the water is held back by an
embankment. A red-wing & Maryland Yellow Throat vireo
singing [?]
  In the swamp below Mr. Smith's place on F[?] St. I
found another Red-wing and among the apple trees in the
b[?]ing posture an Orchard Oriole was in full song.