37

1916.

49. Evening Grosbeaks. Miss Mary & Miss Hattie Eaton dwell not
far from the village center of Concord on a shaded hillside that
slopes steeply down to Monument Street from the rear of Sleepy Hollow
Cemetery. Close about their house stand several large White Ashes, planted
upwards of sixty years ago, and various other ornamental trees among
which are two or three well-grown Box Elders. Shortly after settling
at our farm I was called to the telephone one evening (that of the 8th April [April 8, 1916])
by Miss Mary Eaton who informed me that six Evening Grosbeaks, a
[male] and 5 [females], had appeared at 10.30 that forenoon, in trees near the house.
When, at length, they flew off several others joined them but just how
many there were in all she could not say. The next day [April 9, 1916] four were
seen by her at 8 A.M. and eight (1 [male] & 7 [females]) by Mr. Dexter about noon.
On the 10th [April 10, 1916] the same flock of eight reappeared to be seen by both
Miss Eaton & Mr. Dexter. Learning on that day of this presence
Reginald Heber Howe Jr. telephoned her to request permission to
shoot one of them for the Thoreau Museum Collection. Being refused
he was not heard from again & is unknown to have visited
the place to see the birds. They were unnoted by any one on the 11th [April 11, 1916]
but at 9.15 on the morning of the 12th [April 12, 1916] Miss Mary telephoned
me that they were back again. I motored there as soon as our Ford
car could be got ready, making the Eaton house at 10.40. The
Grosbeaks had flitted away only a few minutes before, Miss
Eaton said, but we found them presently, further up the hillside
and just outside a boundary wall of the cemetery, the [male] on
grass ground in a sunny opening directly beneath a scraggy 
apple tree in which the others were perched. On counting the
numbers of the flock repeatedly & carefully I was not a little 
surprised to find that besides the [male] there were no less than
ten birds in [female] plumage or eleven altogether. Miss Eaton's
surprise was even greater for no one had hitherto made certain