322
1897.
Nov.10
Concord, Mass.
  Clear and cooler with strong W. wind - a fine, bracing day.
  Spelman and I were out nearly the whole forenoon taking
a long tramp, first through the woods to Bensen's, thence
through Mrs. Barrett's woods to her home, back by Lawrence's
woods to Birch Island and over Davis's Hill to the cabin.
  We started three Partridges and saw four Gray Squirrels
besides a number of small birds including, a White-throated
Sparrow, fifteen or twenty Tree Sparrows, a flock of six
Fox Sparrows, several flocks of Chickadees, each accompanied
by  two or three Kinglets, a Flicker, several Blue Jays
and a number of Crows.
  One of the Partridges was singularly tame. We heard
it chickering among some alders near the edge of Holden's
meadow and soon afterwards saw it walking slowly along
shaking its ruffs (it was a very large & fine cock) and 
jerking its head & neck forward & down at each step in
such a way as to make it appear lame. Apparently it 
did not like to fly because we were in the opening
between it and the woods but at length it started out
over the meadow and doubled back across the opening
40 yards or so in advance of where we were standing.
Soon after dinner I flushed two partridges together in
the knoll above this opening. One, a large cock & doubtless
the same bird seen this forenoon, flew up into a pine
& when I approached took a second flight of only a 
few yards & alighted again on a dead branch within
plain sight & scarce thirty yards from me. 
  One of the birds seen in Mrs. Barrett's woods this
morning was also very tame rising from some bushes
along a wall & attempting to alight on the top of a stake, after