Nest of Contopus virens. Love notes of
the quail.
MASS. (Middlesex Co) [Massachusetts, Middlesex County]
1857
June 14 [June 14, 1875] the house in time for dinner. In P.M.
started off again and drove up into
Prospect St. where I tied and visited 
the nest of Contopus virens found on
the 7th inst. [June 7, 1875] It contained two eggs which
I took. The parent birds sat in a 
neighboring oak and looked on as I
despoiled their treasure, with perfect
apparent unconcern. Took a nest of D.
Penn. [Dendroica pensylvanica] found the same date & with (today)
4 eggs. Started a [female] grouse with a brood
of young. She made a great fuss fluttering
along the ground a [and] making a piteous
noise exactly like a dog when whining
for admittance at a closed door. I
saw only one chick but presume there are
more; it was apparently about a week old.
Quail are very abundant. I see
or hear them every day. Sometimes
the male calls Bob White continuously
ten or a dozen times in succession &
without the slightest interval between the
ordinarily separate utterances. Their amours
are apparently at this height as they 
are very noisy, more so than I ever
observed them to be before. All the fall
notes are freely used.
  June 15 [June 15, 1875] Clear and rather warm. Met Harry Bailey at
Watertown by appointment and taking the
train to Waltham we spent the day in
that town hunting for nests, and late in
the afternoon walked down through Waverley
to Adam's Place where we took the horse
car home. Had most miserable luck taking