44

1916.

64. Song Sparrow. Two [males] singing at the Farm when I reached there on
April 4 [April 4, 1916]. Six were heard next day [April 5, 1916] and five  on the 6th [April 6, 1916], some of these being north-bound migrants, doubtless, for after that no more than three were noted
within the same area, one singing daily in or near the Forsythia thicket in front
of our house, another across the road in the Berry Pasture. The third, with his mate,
haunted a belt of bushes at the foot of the slope next the Cow Pasture, where they
were seen with young just out of the nest on June 8 [June 8, 1916]. There was also a pair
frequenting the Ritchie place and another Mr. Howe's flower garden. Thus
the birds breeding in localities that I am accustomed to visit regularly
remained about the same in numbers and occupied the same stations
as in former recent years. I saw little of the Ball's Hill region this
season but when there on June 29 [June 29, 1916] heard no less than six Song Sparrows
in full song along the edges of the river meadows which at that time
were mostly under water - and had been continually during the entire
spring.

65. Swamp Sparrow. Because of the exceptionally long-continued period
of high water, just referred to, the accustomed breeding haunts of the Swamp
Sparrows along Concord River harbored comparatively few birds of the species this
year. Indeed I noted only one [male] singing in May (28th) [May 28, 1916] near Ball's
Hill but on June 22 [June 22, 1916] two were heard there & a third at Davis' Hill,
all three among bushes bordering the still flooded meadows.

66. Fox Sparrow. Only a trifle more numerously represented during
this spring than last - a season of exceptional scarcity. Noted by me
only at the Farm where four birds were seen on April 6 [April 6, 1916], two on the 8th [April 8, 1916],
9th [April 9, 1916] & 10th [April 10, 1916], three on the 11th [April 11, 1916], one on the 15th [April 15, 1916], one on the 16th [April 16, 1916] - or not
more than fifteen in all, as compared with some thirteen met with last
year in the same locality, during the corresponding month. They appeared
in something like old-time abundance during north-bound migration in
1914 but during the autumn of that year I met with only a single bird at Concord.