19
Concord, Mass.
1898.
March 18
(No 4)
alighted among or swam in to them. He says
that between sixty and one-hundred Black Ducks
have come into this meadow every evening of late
and that he killed three there last evening.
George Holden, whom I met later, confirmed these
statements as to the evening flights.
  After dining at the cabin I walked about
on the sides of Ball's Hill for an hour or more.
The damage which the Rabbits have done to my 
shrubs and young trees the past winter exceeds
anything that has ever happened within my
observation before. At the eastern end of the hill hundreds
if not thousands of trees and shrubs have been ruined
and in places several rods square scarce one has
escaped. The species most commonly or generally
attacked are the Oaks (Red, Black, Scarlet and Bear)[,]
Maples, Hickory, Wild Apple, Smooth Sumac, Witch
Hazel (an especial favorite, evidently) Sweet Fern,
Bitter Sweet & Dogwood (Cornus florida).Only a very
few of the Common Hazels have been molested. 
One of my Hawthorns is ruined. The teeth marks
show that the Rabbit always bites across the stem,
never up and down, and that it invariably works
above the level of the snow. It apparently never
barks white pines or birches & these are almost the only trees
[delete]tree[/delete] found here which enjoy complete
immunity from its attacks. I started a Rabbit
from its forum in the centre of the
devastated tract this afternoon.