Concord, Mass.
1896
October 31
  A beautiful day but unseasonably warm, with light S.W. wind.
  I had appointed to spend the day bird hunting with
Will Bartlett and at 8 a.m. we started down river
together but each in his own canoe. Just below Flint's bridge
we found a lot of small birds. There were Tree Sparrows
in great numbers in the bushes along the banks and
several of them sang many times in full, ringing tones.
Over the fields near the Y. tree Horned Larks were flying about
piping. We were attempting to land to look for them when
two Blackbirds rose from the reeds and flew across the
river into some button bushes. I followed them at once
and finding that they were Red-wings shot one of them.
The other flew up into an oak where it was presently
joined by four more. All six of the birds in this flock
were females but late in the afternoon I saw another
flock of about 25 nearly half of which were males.
This second flock flew over Ball's Hill coming from
the direction of Carlisle bridge. They were so low down &
in so good a light that I distinctly made out the
the red shoulders of the males and their rusty & black
mottled plumage. Still another flock of Blackbirds which
were probably of this species passed over Red bridge this
morning just as I was starting. There were eight of
them. I supposed at the time that they were Cow-birds
They certainly were not Rusties.
  Soon after shooting the Red-wing we saw two Shrikes
one a brown, the other a very white bird.
  There were many Crows and about the usual number
of Blue Jays scattered along the river banks all the
way to Dakin's Hill.