12
Cambridge, Mass.
1897
March 23
  Clear, warm, dead calm through the early forenoon, afterwards
with a chill east wind.
  Starting at 9 A.M. I drove into and around Mt. Auburn,
seeing or hearing 5 or 6 Song Sparrows, a Flicker (shouting in
the oaks near the tower) a Red wing (singing at the
little pond where I used to trap musk rats) a pair of
Bluebirds, a Blue Jay, and countless English Sparrows.
[margin]Birds in
Mt. Auburn[/margin]
  I was astonished at the abundance of Gray Squirrels of
which I counted 34. Most of them were in maples
in the extreme tops of these trees among the slender
terminal twigs which they were stripping of their buds.
I saw six in one tree and four or five in each of several
trees. At a distance they resembled birds' nests & I
actually mistook one of them for an old Oriole's nest.
In one place where the path curved sharply around
some shrubbery I surprised twelve of these Squirrels
feeding on a broad space of turf. They all started off
[delete]all together[/delete] in the same direction and for a distance
of thirty yards or more ran so closely crowded together
that a large blanket would have covered the whole
bunch. When they reached the nearest tree (a large oak)
they swarmed up its trunk in a perfect stream some of
those in the rear actually having to wait until
a space was cleared for them. A good many of these
Gray Squirrels were young animals but little larger than
Red Squirrels. 
[margin]Gray Squirrels[/margin]
  I saw only one Chipmunk. The cemetery officials have
waged relentless war on this species for several years past for
the alleged reason that it eats flowering plants.