Ardetta exilis
MASS. (Middlesex Co) [Middlesex county, Massachusetts]
1875.
Aug. 4 [August 4, 1875]  the number of birds that passed my
station as at least 25,000 and probably as
many more came in from the other
side. As late as I remained in the vicinity
they kept up a continual conversational
chatter all over the swamp. This forenoon
I took a short turn up through the lower
swamp, & shot an adult [female] Ardetta exilis
in rather worn plumage: her stomach con-
tained a number of small bream & sand 
pickerel. Also shot a young N. Gardenii [Nyctiardea gardenii]
a y.y. Porzana Carolina, and 6 Ereunetes
petrificatus. The latter I killed on the
flats in Cambridge nook out of a flock
of over a hundred among which were
a dozen or more Aeg. semipalmatus [Aegialitis semipalmatus] &
1 Gambetta flavipes.
  Aug. 9 [August 9, 1875] Clear and hot. The ther. [thermometer] for the past two weeks
has been anywhere between 80 [degrees] and 95 [degrees] during
the day. Went up into the swamps this
afternoon and collected a few birds among
them an adlt. [adult male] Ardetta exilis and a [male]
Cistothorus stillaris [Cistothorus stellaris]. The latter species I
found quite abundant around Block Is [Block Island].
The males were in full song and good
plumage and a dissection of the specimen
shot revealed the fact that the duties
of incubated [incubation] had just commenced, as
a comparision [comparison] of the testes with those 
of a [male] Chrysomitris tristis [delete]plainl[/delete] showed
a perfectly mature condition in the
former and a state of decided decline
in the latter bird's. This quite satisfactorily
Saw the first Rhy. solitarius [Rhyacophilus solitarius].