347
Concord, Mass.
1897
Nov. 22
  The sun shone through thin clouds most of the forenoon but
the afternoon was gloomy with every sign of an approaching
storm. A keen N.W. wind all day.
  Immediately after breakfast I walked to the Mason
field and back seeing a large flock of Goldfinches
feeding in a gray birch. Spent the remainder of the
day working with Pat on a wood road on Davis's Hill.
Started two Partridges. Small birds appeared to
be very scarce; I saw only a Downy Woodpecker,
a flock of Chickadees and a party of five Tree Sparrows.
Early this morning a Robin called a number of times
close to the cabin. At about 8 o'clock this evening
a Screech Owl, the first that I have heard this autumn,
wailed for eight or ten minutes in one of the oaks
by our door.
  Just as we were sitting down to dinner Gilbert
called my attention to what we at first took to be
a Mouse that had climbed to a shelf about 4 feet
above the floor and was in the act of helping itself
to some butter which is kept in an open glass
tumbler. To my surprise it proved to be a large
shrew, a Blarina I think. It would thrust its
nose into the butter and eat quickly for a minute
ot two balancing itself the while on the edge of the
tumbler. Then it would descend & disappear in the
wood box returning again to resume its feast.
I now suspect that it is the creature that made
the hole in the path in front of the cabin.
We saw it in a good light at a distance of less
than eight feet & there can be no question that it was a
shrew. It had a short tail & no external ears.