Concord, Mass.
1902.
June 14
(No 3)
  Brilliantly clear with light S.W. wind. Warm at
midday, cool at morning & evening.
  I came to Concord by the 5:00 train from
Arlington this afternoon. A Bittern was pumping
in the meadow directly opposite the cabin. He has
been there constantly for two weeks or more and I
suspect that there is a nest in one of the large 
clusters of button bushes brought down by the ice
last winter and deposited in this meadow.
  On May 31st we found a Phoebe sitting on her nest
in the stone boat house opposite Ball's Hill. I think
she had only just completed her set of four eggs on
this date for Gilbert saw her at work on the nest
only five or six days before. He put his hand in the
nest at 4.40 P.M. to-day and is sure that he felt
all four eggs but when I examined the nest only about
an hour later (at 5.45) three of the eggs had hatched.
Strange to say we have never once seen either of the
old Phoebees since May 31st although whenever we
have felt the eggs they have invariably been warm.
The sitting female must hear us (she cannot possibly see
us) when we are a long distance off and slip
out and off into the neighboring woods. The bird
who has successfully reared a brood of young in
the stone horse shed at Ball's Hill has also been
in the habit of flying out through the window
whenever any one passed along the path in front of it.
Gilbert saw her come out to-day so she is probably
preparing to lay a second clutch in the old nest.
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