Concord, Mass.
1911.
March 7
[March 7, 1911]

  Brilliantly clear with light, variable winds. Ther 4 [degrees] - 34 [degrees].
  I came to Concord with Gilbert to-day to spend a month
or more fighting gypsy and brown-tailed moths. We have taken
up our quarters in the old farm house but may change
to the cabins later on. James reports that the thermometer
fell to 4 [degrees] last night but when I reached the house at 3 P.M.
it stood at 34 [degrees] and as there was a bright sun and almost
no wind the air seemed pleasantly warm.

Twelve Partridges started

  At 4 P.M. I started for a walk with "Larry". As
I entered the cedars at the foot of the lane I began to
see tracks of Partridges crossing the road every few yards
and presently six birds went up in rapid succession on the
edge of the run all flying across it towards the South-east.
In a belt of brush 200 yds. to the north ward, on the south
side of the cow pasture, Larry started three more. Twenty
minutes later I flushed two in the Berry Pasture and
shortly afterwards a single bird at the head of the lane
near the barn. Thus I saw no less than twelve different
birds in less than an hour and within an area of not
over fifteen acres.

Pheasant crowing
Tracks of Partridge & Pheasant compared

  Just before sunset a Ring-necked Pheasant crowed
twice very near me in the Berry Pasture. I failed to find
him but saw his tracks in several places very plainly
marked in fresh, soft snow, mingling with the trails of
the two Ruffed Grouse that I started there near where
I heard him. The footprints of the two species were
very unlike. Those of the Pheasant were much the larger
& his lateral toes pointed well forward [diagram] while the
lateral toes of the Partridges were put down almost 
at right angles with the middle toe [diagram]. The