148
Concord, Mass.
1898.
June 26
(No 2)
broad and round like that of an Owl. but a few moments 
later we discovered another young bird fully feathered &
free from down perched on a branch several yards from
the nest and this second young was evidently a
Red-shouldered Hawk. I cannot understand this wide 
difference in apparent age between it and the young bird
in the nest but of course both must have belonged 
to the same brood. It does not seem possible that
the young can have been hatched from eggs laid last
April when the pair of Red-shoulders were so 
constantly soaring & screaming over Holden's Hill after
which they disappeared. Indeed I think it most
probable that they laid their first set elsewhere
and losing it came back to Holden's Hill later in 
the season. I am glad to know that my big pine
has proved a safe refuge there for for [sic] them & their
brood.
  The birds are fast getting the upper hand of the
green caterpillars that have been devastating my white
maples. Within the past few days I have seen Robins,
Tanagers, Red-eyed vireos, Cuckoos, Orioles, Red wings
and Crows feeding on them greedily. The Red wings
& Cuckoos have done the best & most constant service.
Some of the trees further up the river have fared
much worse than mine & are now as bare as in 
winter. Miss Keyes tells me that the maples along
the Assabet [river] have suffered the worst of all.
  George Keyes picked up the shell of a Night Heron
egg on Ball's Hill to-day. The Crows must have brought it
from the Bedford heronry.