1902.
June 16
(No 2)
  The Red-eyed Vireo's nest was finished but empty
when I found it on the evening of June 1st. There was
one egg at 8 A.M. next day, and four when Gilbert again
visited Ball's Hill on June 5th. The Vireo has been sitting
steadily ever since but when I last examined the nest
at 7 A.M. today her eggs although dark-colored were
still unhatched. Assuming that she began incubating them
on the 5th (when Gilbert found her on the nest) she has already
devoted to the task nearly the same time which has sufficed
the Robin to hatch her young! She is a close sitter allowing
us to brush against the foliage which conceals the nest
rather perfectly, without moving but she will not permit
us to quite touch her.
  Reginald Heber Howe Jr. tells us that Samuel Howe's
son has in captivity a pair of Great Horned Owls which
when not large enough to fly he took from the nest in
Lawrence's pine woods (by the river near Birch Island) last
year and further that the birds nested in the same 
tree again this season and again lost their young which
were found dead on the ground beneath the nest
a few weeks ago, by Albert Lawrence's son, I believe.
  While waiting at the West Bedford station this morning
to take the train for Cambridge I heard a Purple Finch
and a Phoebe in full song. A Flicker also shouted twice.
There were a number of Barn Swallows flying back &
forth between Parker's farm and the river meadows.
  Three English Sparrows, two adult males & a female, visited
the cabin early this morning. It is two years or more since
I have seen any there before.
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