3
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1897
January 31
(No. 2)
 He (the Frog Catcher) confirms a story which Olivia Ames Lothrop
told recently about the finding of a Black Duck's nest
with eggs in the Maple Swamp last summer. Ames was shown
the nest after it had been robbed. It was on dry ground
among bushes & had a good deal of dark colored down.
The eggs were hatched under a hen but the young all died
soon afterwards. I consider these statements reliable enough
but I suspect that the Duck was really a tame one that
had "stolen" her nest in the swamp although the man who
found it assured Lothrop that she rose like a wild bird
& flew off out of sight.
[margin]Wild? Duck's 
nest[/margin]
  Lothrop also told me that he examined ten nests of
the Green Heron which contained eggs or young one day last
spring. They were all in maples in the southern part of
the swamp near Heron Pool. He brought me one nest with
a fine set of five eggs. Passing around Heron Pool to-day
I counted five nests of this Heron scattered about over an
area of an acre or two, all in maples at an average height
of about 20 ft. This comes pretty near being a colony of
Green Herons. They did not breed so uncommonly in any
part of the Fresh Pond Swamps thirty years ago. Lothrop
says that about all the nests are found & robbed by boys.
According to Robinson (who has trapped three obviously 
the past two years) the mammals which now inhibit
this swamp are Field Mice, White-footed Mice, Cotton tailed
Rabbits and Muskrats. To this list should be added the
smaller Weasel a specimen of which in winter pelage was
shot late in November 1896 & shown to  me by Outram Bangs.
The Maple Swamp has suffered no serious defacement within
the past decade & most of it is as wild & beautiful as it
was thirty years ago but its days are surely numbered for I hear
that the brick makers will soon attack it.
[margin]Green Herons
nests[/margin]
[margin]Mammals
still inhabiting
the Maple
Swamp[/margin]