Middlesex Co., Mass [Middlesex County, Massachusetts.]
1874
drake lit and immediately took to the
shore and up the bank again into the
bushes. Following the others we started
the duck from among the bushes on shore
and then came upon the scaup as he
was feeding among some rushes. He 
was very tame and we paddled up
within ten yards of him before he
would fly. He swam very low in the
water kept twitching his tail sideways
with great rapidity & his head & neck
looked disproportionately large & thick.
When he flew he trailed his feet on the
water for a few yards then as he
cleared the surface, raised them up
behind under his tail. Had also a
very fine shot at an immature Circus [Circus hudsonius]
which hovered over some sparrows
within twenty yds of us. Coming
back saw a single Pas. iliaca [Passerella iliaca] (the first,
and numbers of Chry. pinus [Chrysomitris pinus], also
a [delete]single[/delete] Pod. podiceps [Podilymbus podiceps] near the rock.
After a lunch with Dan [Daniel Chester French] took the 1.35
train home. Arrived at the house
changed my things as rapidly as
possible and started for the swamps
with Shot. Beat the upper meadows
without success but in the lower
put up 5 snipe and bagged 2 & 
a rail. Shot very poorly missing 6
shots. The pup was rather wild but
did some very handsome work drawing
steadily up to a brace of snipe for
50 yds or more giving me a fine
double which I missed most disgracefully.