Middlesex Co., Mass. [Middlesex County, Massachusetts]
April 15 - 1875
Apr. 15 [April 15, 1875] Upon the morning of the 13th inst [April 13, 1875] it com-
menced snowing and the storm raged
with unabated violence through that day
and the succeeding night, and when it
at length ceased on the next morning at
least twelve inches had fallen on the level
and the drifts in many places were very
deep. Altogether it was as violent a storm
as we had at any time during the winter.
Yesterday the ther [thermometer] did not rise much above
40 [degrees] so that little impression was made on
the snow. This morning after breakfast I
set out for a tramp striking up over the
"Watr. farm [Watertown farm]" I found the snow very
deep especially in the woods and the
walking hard. Saw several D. pina all
[male] and all singing: they were seen at Newton
last Sunday. Among the cedars were a
flock of Pas. iliaca [Passerella iliaca] the [male] singing most
exquisitely. In the apple orchard below I
heard several [male] Regulus satrapa singing
exactly as in Me. [Maine] in June. The song is
entirely without melody. I shot a pair
and found that they had assumed the summer
plumage. Here I also shot a [male] Sialia sialis;
as he fell struggling into the snow his mate 
uttered a cry of anxiety and hovered over
him a moment but as I approached
quickly made off warbling very like a 
[male] but rather imperfectly, [delete]The observation on
the same[/delete] (Compare similar observation on p.88.)
and was soon out of sight. Keeping on
up to the Arsenal woods I shot a
crow which flew over me within good