Concord, Mass.
1899
April 5
(No 2)
Red-tailed Hawks soaring in company. One (the male)
held a small snake dangling from its talons. The other
had lost one of the primaries from the right wing [delete]a[/delete] a
good mark to remember & identify her by in the future.
Both birds passed directly over me at a height not
greater than 100 yards and I watched them with the
keenest enjoyment and admiration as they wheeled
and wheeled on set wings showing their red tails at
every turn.
[margin]Red-tailed
Hawks.[/margin]
  On reaching the canoe I hoisted the sail and was
soon driving merrily homeward before the brisk wind.
As I got out into the Great Meadow I began to see
Ducks rising from the water in pairs and small
flocks at distances varying from a few hundred yards
to a mile or more. They mounted high in air when,
for a few minutes, they flow about aimlessly their
numbers steadily increasing until over fifty birds were
collected when the[y] went off to the southward. Before I
got across the meadows I had started at least twenty
five or thirty more Ducks. I had no glass with me
but I think more than half these birds were
Whistlers and the remainder Gooseanders. I also
flushed a pair of Black Ducks from a thicket
of bushes. Earlier in the day I saw two adult
Herring Gulls flying about near the cabin.
Altogether it seemed quite like the old days to find
so many water fowl on the meadows.
[margin]Water-fowl
on the
Great Meadows.[/margin]
  About a dozen Painted Tortoises on logs & boards
sunning[.]
[margin]Painted
Tortoises out[/margin]
32