270
Concord, Mass.
1898.
October 10
   There was a sharp frost last night but to-day
was cloudless and warm with a light S. wind.
  At day break a Screech Owl wailed for ten or 
twelve minutes in the pines near the house &
when I told Gilbert about it he said that he
had heard one at Ball's Hill on the nights of the 
8th and 9th.
[margin]A Screech Owl
visits the
cabin.[/margin]
  I spent the day at the cabin. A Brown Creeper,
two Juncos, two Golden and one Ruby crested Kinglets
and a Downy Woodpecker were seen near the
river bank. The leaves have fallen from most
of the red maples in the swamps but there has
been no brilliant coloring anywhere as yet. Many
of the maples on high ground are still quite green.
On my way down river in the morning I saw
a Bittern & a Black Duck. I hear Titlarks every
day but they are less numerous along the river
than usual, owing, no doubt, to the fact that
the grass has not been cut on the meadows this year.
  It has been cut over a space of about an acre
near the head of Beaver Dam Rapid and in this
little opening the sportsmen find all their Snipe.
A man who was boating the place this morning
told me that he & two companions bagged
seventeen Snipe there on September 17th. He said
that there were many more that escaped. They would
rise high and fly all over the meadows but they always
returned sooner or later & alighted again in the opening.
[margin]Wilson's Snipe[/margin]