Concord, Mass.
(Ball's Hill)
1900
April 21
(No 2)            
were screaming and imitating the Red-shouldered Hawk
in the neighboring oak woods. In the afternoon I
heard a Kingfisher rattle by the river and saw a
flock of 21 Cedar birds fly over. Purdie reports seeing
two Yellow Palm Warblers in an apple tree at Brennan's
At 5.30 P.M. a Bittern (the first I heard this
spring) pumped three or four times in the old station
on the south side of Great Meadow. At sunset Red-wings
were singing far & near in every direction.
Kingfisher
Cedar Birds
Yellow Palm W.
First pumping
of Bittern.
  As twilight was falling Purdie discovered a Rabbit
within ten feet of the smaller cabin and called me out
to see it. It was nibbling at a piece of toasted bread
and showed little or no fear of us although it started
off a few feet when I tried to pass it within a 
distance of two or three yards. It looked & acted
like the remarkably tame Rabbit which frequented
the path east of the cabin last spring.
A tame
Wild Rabbit
  As Pat was digging a hole for a pine this
afternoon his spade turned out three young Painted
Tortoises alive but in a torpid state. They were about
as large around as silver dollars. Several years
ago at about this season or a little later Wood,
while surveying Benson's field found several of these
young Tortoises apparently on their way to the river.
He brought one of these to me & I remember
that at the time we both thought that they
must have just come out of the ground. I
wonder if all of them remain there during their
first winter.
Young Painted
Tortoises dug up
in sandy field
36