295
1898
November 6
Concord, Mass.
  Forenoon cloudy & raining with S.W. wind. Afternoon
cloudy & dead calm. A superb sunset - the fourth
remarkably fine one that we have had in four 
consecutive evenings.
  Spent the forenoon in the cabin writing. Saw 
a White-throated Sparrow at the S. end of 
Ball's Hill. In the early afternoon a number
of Crows were making a great outcry in the
woods over the river and presently I saw
three traveling across the Great Meadows in
the wake of a big bird that flew like a 
Great Horned Owl alternatively flapping & sailing.
I have repeatedly of late seen Crows mobbing
Red-shouldered Hawks but these birds do 
not excite them nearly so much as do
the larger Owls. 
  On the evening of November 3rd, on that of the
4th, and again this evening, shortly after
sunset, when the light was beginning to fade
but the western sky was still aglow I heard 
Rails calling in the flooded meadows. Tonight
there were at least two birds a gun shot or
more apart. I suppose they must have been 
Carolina Rails for their notes did not differ
noticeably from the kek or kick which this
species utters in autumn but it is very 
late in the season for Carolina Rails to be
lingering here.
[margin]Carolina
Rails
still here[/margin]