72
Concord, Mass.
1898
May 2
  Clear with slight S.E. wind and hazy sky at sunset,
thin and then damp air indicating a coming storm.
  Purdie left me this morning and Faxon arrived
by the 5.30 P.M. train. I spent the forenoon
at Ball's Hill overseeing the men who are at work
on the new cabin. In the afternoon I sailed down
to the great Bedford Swamp where I dug some
Rhodora bushes and then crossed the river (still under
sail) to Lawrence's woods where I got some Pyrrhulas
and visited the young Great Horned Owls. They were 
in the same place but they had moved about one
quarter around the trunk of the pine evidently, as I
thought, because the wind had changed for yesterday,
when it was north, they were on the South side of the tree
and to-day, when it was S.E., on the N.W. side.
  While I was looking at them, standing about 20 yards
away, one of the old birds began hooting in the pines
behind me; [delete]and[/delete] presently it appeared and flying from
tree to tree moved around me in a half circle keeping
just beyond gun range and behaving in the most
curious manner. Alighting close to the trunk of a pine,
at a height of 30 or 40 feet above ground, it would
follow the branch out nearly to the end and walking steadily
and at times rather quickly, its body horizontal, its 
wings wide-spread and flapping slowly like those of a 
big butterfly, its head lowered considerably below the line
of the back, its horns slightly raised and its eyes
glaring fiercely. It hooted every half minute or so in 
low cooing tones. Its mate also hooted in answer but
flew off to another piece of woods