1895
April 4
  Early morning clear and still. Remainder of day cloudy with a violent
and very cold N. wind. Ground frozen & meadows skimmed over last sight.
  I woke soon after sunrise to hear a Robin (my first) in full
song. Song Sparrows were also singing and Red-winged, Rusty, and
Crow Blackbirds (apparently all together in a large flock) creaking
jingling and coug-quer-ca-ing. It was the first real burst of
bird sunrise that I have heard this spring.
  When I came down to breakfast the wind had risen and the sky
clouded over and on my way to Ball's Hill I saw almost no small
birds and heard nothing but two or three Song Sparrows.
  On reaching the cabin (I sailed down) I at once started for
a walk. In the briar-grown thickets on the edge of the
swamp were several Song Sparrows and a number of Tree Sparrows.
One of the latter flew up into a maple and sang twenty or
thirty times, sitting erect and still, the wind blowing his feathers
about. His song was peculiarly tender & expressive with some unusual
low, liquid notes near the end. I think I have never heard a
Tree Sparrow sing so finely before.
  Just beyond the swamp I started at least four Partridges from
a thicket of young pines. I saw one bird run swiftly across
a patch of snow and then stand erect shaking his ruffs and
quilting. At the Glacial Hollow I came upon a fifth Partridge
who seemed to have a broken wing for he [delete]sprang upward[/delete] attempted
vainly to rise & finally ran off every now & then springing upward
three or four feet & coming heavily to the ground again.
  When I came up the river at evening the wind had
sunk to a steady breeze and Red-wings were singing on
the tops of the maples. Several muskrats were swimming about
making their peculiar murmuring calls. I am glad to see
that some of them have escaped the hunters.