Middlesex Co., Mass. [Middlesex County, Massachusetts]
Nov. 9- 1874
Nov. 9 [November 9, 1874] Cloudy with damp S. [south] wind. After
breakfast took a turn up on the farm,
collecting. Took Curv. Am [Curvirostra americana] 4, Sitta
Carolinensis 4 & Junco hyemalis 1.
Saw a very fine [male] Sitta Canadensis.
The S. Carolin. were paired as usual
and when one was shot its mate
showed considerable solicitude. The
other species dissolves all conjugal
connection after the breeding season.
Saw several Certhia familaris and
Regulus satrapa. Parus atricapillus was
in unusual abundance. A few
Juncos are still about and Pas.
iliaca [Passerella iliaca] are quite common in small flocks
but have seen no Chry. pinus [Chrysomitris pinus] for
some time. Aeg. linaria [Aegiothus linaria] has also
apparently disappeared. Saw two
birds flying over our place this
morning which uttered a note
entirely new to me. I think they
must have been Plec. Lapponicus [Plectrophanes lapponicus].
Curvirostra Am. has two notes
on the ordinary call and another clearer
& more bell like. Those that I shot
comprised all the numbers of a flock.
They were very tame and so fat that
they made rather poor specimens.
One which I wing tipped I took home
alive and it is doing very well on a
diet of canary seed and cold water.
In the cedars above French's I shot a [female]
grouse from a tree. She sat perfectly
motionless with outstretched neck &
feathers drawn very close.