23
Concord, Mass.
1897
April 6-10
(no 3)
  According to the best information which I can obtain the
slaughter of muskrats during the high water in March
was something unprecedented of late years but still there
are a good many lelf[sic] [left], indeed nearly the usual breeding
stock I should say. For the past three or four evenings
I have seen five or six during each of my homeward
trips up river to the Keyes'. They are usually in
fours but I have neither smelt their musk nor
heard their familiar low murmuring this year. On several
occasions I have seen one of a pair  -  the female no doubt  -
elude the other by diving and coming up well out in
the river leaving the male cruising about even in shore
looking for her with evident anxiety. The Muskrats'
eyesight is evidently not the best even in the
evening twilight.
[margin]Muskrats[/margin]
  Painted Tortoises have been out in numbers ever since
April 1st. The Crows have already got some of them for
I have found several freshly cleaned shells on the
river banks. On the 4th I heard a rustling in 
the leaves on a hill side several hundred yards
from water and going to the spot found a Spotted Tortoise
crawling laboriously up the steep incline. Could it
have been thinking of laying its eggs this early?
[margin]Tortoises[/margin]
  Wood Frogs, Leopard Frogs and Pickering's Hylas have
been heard daily since they began their croaking or
peepings but not one of the three as yet in any
numbers. I cannot understand this for the frost is
all out of the meadows and the water is unusually
warm for the season.