Concord, Mass.
1900.
November 4
Ball's Hill.
  During the past ten days I have made no entry in this
journal although I have been living all the while at Ball's Hill
and spending much of my time in the woods. But the
sum of each days observations has been so slight as not to
seem worth recording save by brief entries in the field list.
I cannot remember a season when birds of all kinds have been
so scarce. None of the irregular "winter visitors" have as yet appeared
& of the regular late autumn migrants there have been very few. 
There have been almost no Duck & only an occasional Hawk
while I have heard Snipe only two or three times (the meadows
have been too dry for them). Partridges have been painfully
scarce but it is said that there are a good many Quail
although I have seen none. Several large flocks of Juncos
were about during the last week of October but most of the other
small birds have been scarce. Chickadees have been almost wanting.
I do not see more than four or five daily & rarely more
than two or three together.
Birds of all
kinds scarce.
No winter birds
Light migration
Ducks, Hawks, 
& Snipe very scarce. Also
Partridges.
Quail
  I spent to-day at the farm and there were, comparatively
speaking, a good many small birds there. I saw two
White-bellied Nuthatches, a Goldfinch, a flock of 50 Horned
Larks (flying S.W. past the house) & a flock of 16 Purple Finches
(flying over the orchard). A Song Sparrow was chirping near
the house & I heard a Kinglet & a Creeper in the woods.
A Solitary Goldfinch was feeding among some tall weeds
in the garden. Jays were screaming & a Downy knocking against
a dry branch.
Small birds
noted at the
Farm.
  An enormous flock of Crows passed southward high up
at about 10 A.M. They flowed past in a continuous stream
upwards of a mile in length. I counted them roughly &
made 320 birds. A smaller flock passed an hour later.
Migratory
flight of
Crows.
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