47

1916.

(Cow-bird [Cowbird]) growing within two yards of our dining room front
windows. At 1 P. M. on that day [May 18, 1916] a [male] Cow-bird came flying low
over the lawn straight for the cedar and disappeared in its dense
foliage, just where the nest was, almost without checking her speed while
still exposed to view. She remained there only a few seconds, however,
for, acting thoughtlessly, on impulse afterwards regretted, I rapped loudly
on the window pane and frightened her away. Although the Chippy
was seen to enter this nest next day she laid no egg in it and presently
built another, not far off.

72. Red-winged Blackbird. The male Red-wings reached Concord
before I did, of course. They afterwards visited our farm lands or
those of our near neighbors, not infrequently, although somewhat 
less numerously than usual, especially during the month of April,
feeding in ploughed ground or stubble fields, and every now & then
clustering to sing awhile in some leafless tree tops. From the
river meadows they were banished during the entire breeding
season by exceptionally long-protracted floods due to almost
incessant rain in May & June. A few pairs nested along
Bigelow Brook and other small streams that flow through
meadows above the level of those bordering the river. In June
I saw many birds of both sexes in meadows lying near
the source of the Shawsheen River, in Bedford, and to the
eastward of Lexington Park, as we were motoring to or
from Cambridge. On June 15 [June 15, 1916] I spent the entire forenoon at
or near Ball's Hill without seeing a single Red-wing but
a [male] was singing there and another at Davis' Hill on the
29th of the month [June 29, 1916], when the water had fallen somewhat 
although it continued to overspread the greater part of
the river meadows.