23
Concord, Mass.
1898
March 19
(No 2)
  At about 5 P.M. as I was on the point of starting
for Concord I heard a Hairy Woodpecker call on the
ridge behind the cabin. Going to the spot I started
the bird from an oak. It was exceedingly shy and
seemed to be as much alarmed at my presence as
would have been a Crow or Hawk. There was a 
Downy Woodpecker in the same tree. 
  A shrike was perched on the top of a maple by
the river when I pushed off in the canoe. I was
struck by its graceful, high-bred bearing as it
tilted lightly on the slender perch looking keenly around.
  I paddled the whole way up the river seeing a
number of Tree Sparrows (one of which sang a few
times sotto voce) and a great many Red-wings and
Song Sparrows. 
  Some one was shooting at Musk rats all day among
the flooded thickets near Dakin's Hill. I heard that
George Holden has killed about seventy and Galbert
sixty thus far, all below Flint's bridge. Yet I
saw two on my way up river this evening and
heard two others giving the mating call.