14
Concord, Mass.
1898
March 17
(No 2)
  I fear that Partridges will be scarce in my
woods this spring. Thus far I have not seen
a single bird. Bensen and Pat say that a large
Hawk, which has been about all winter and which,
from their description, must be a Red-tail, has
killed all the birds. It is probably the old, old
story- an innocent and useful "Hen Hawk"
haunting the open meadows in pursuit of mice
and conspicuous because of his habit of perching
in isolated trees and a sneaking Gos-hawk
keeping among the dense pines and picking off the
Partridges one after another as they come out
into the little sunny openings. It is certain
that either a Hawk or an Owl killed the Partridge
whose feathers I saw yesterday for I found chalky
white excrement under the tree and the feathers
had all been pulled out not bitten off as
would have been the case had a Fox been the 
marauder. One fact, however, leads me to suspect
that it was the work of an Owl viz. that that [sic] the
Partridge was killed either on or directly under
her roost for the ground under the dense young
pines where the feathers lay was thickly strewn
with Partridge excrement.
  I saw to-day where Rabbits had barked oaks
and young hemlocks and where mice had barked
a cluster of small pitch pines, eating, besides the
bark, a great quantity of pine needles which had
colored their excrement green. The Rabbits had
worked two feet or more above the ground on the
surface of the snow, the mice close to the grounds