Lancaster, Mass.
1902.
May 27
  Cloudy with heavy rain all through the afternoon.
  Our walk this morning led up the road towards
John Thayer's place - the "Back Road" it is usually called.
Birds were numerous and singing freely but I heard 
only the species that are resident here through the
summer.
  There were very many Bobolinks along this road.
Every one that I studied closely uttered the quee-et
note more or less freely and frequently, usually just
before beginning to sing, sometimes interwoven in the
middle of the song, occasionally just after its
termination, not very infrequently in the intervals 
between the songs & either as a single call or repeated
twice or thrice in quick succession. On the other hand
the birds that used it oftenest would sometimes
sing several times in succession without uttering it at
all. On the afternoon of May 23rd I heard it
coming from every direction in the meadows on Mr. Nat.
Thayer's place at South Lancaster (about a mile from here
in an air line) but the only two male Bobolinks which we
found in the extensive fields at the pansy farm (about
three miles east of here) yesterday did not once produce
it although we heard them sing very many times.
  The Least Flycatcher whose mate is sitting on her
nest high up in a maple near my bed room window
occasionally utters his chebee during the darkest hours of
the darkest nights. Indeed I am rarely awake for
half-an-hour between 10 P.M. and daybreak without hearing
him. He gives the note only once at a time & in low, sleepy
tones without the usual sharp emphasis.
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