155
Concord, Mass.
1897.
June 22. 
  I spent the day with William Brewster in Concord on the
river and at Ball's Hill. We took the train at West Cambridge
and drove from Concord Station to the Buttricks where we
packed our baggage into the boat and proceeded down the river.
The day was clear, a cool breeze was blowing, and the vege-
tation was most luxuriant on either bank of the stream. We
found the species of birds and their relative numbers just
about the same as W. had observed in former years, this being
his first trip on the river at this season for some time.
Painted Tortoises were abundant on floating logs, and in one
place we saw a big Snapping Turtle perched on a projecting
rock near the bank. Kingbirds were in great numbers, busily
engaged in fly catching, and one pair were constantly diving
from their stand down to the water, plunging the head and bill
into the water, and quickly rebounding into the air and return-
ing to their perch. Red-winged Blackbirds and Bobolinks made
the meadows resound with their notes. They were as abundant
as usual.
  The former were attacking and driving the Bronzed Grac-
kles which were in very large numbers along our course. They
may have been hunting for Red-wings' eggs, but what we speci-
ally noted was that they were engaged in picking worms from
the leaves of the trees on the banks. They were either
[margin]Quiscalus
q. aeneus.[/margin]