MASS. (Middlesex Co.) [Middlesex County, Massachusetts]
1875.
Aug. 28 [Aug 28, 1875] Clear cool and a lovely day. Off after breakfast
taking the car up to Watertown.  Fired
eight shots with the Stephens pistol but had
very hard luck, securing only two birds
a y. y. Vireo flavifrons (which I mounted) &
a [y.y.] Icterus Baltimore [male]. Vireo flavifrons
was singing everywhere, most beautifully 
too and with more sweetness and expression,
it seemed to me, than in June. This bird
with Icterus Baltimore and Contopus virens
now forms the entire feathered choir.
Saw several magnificent adult [male] orioles, one
of them in particular, I thought the brightest
I had ever noticed. Saw also one each of Picoides
pubescens and Sitta Carolinensis and also
a Dendroica which I took to be D. striata [Dendroica striata]
but am not positive about it. Birds of
all kinds are now principally found in
flocks, especially the sparrows. This evening
while taking a drive with Will Stone saw
a pair of Anas obscura flying low down
over Birds pond.
  Aug. 30 [Aug 30, 1875] Rose at 5 A.M. and went up into the swamps.
as far as the Pine swamp. Shot three Vireo flav. [Vireo flavifrons]
& 1 y.y. V. Noveboracensis [Vireo noveboracensis] but all were moulting
so badly that I was obliged to throw them away.
Heard a Gambetta mel. [Gambetta melanoleuca] flying over the pond
and saw a company of 7 or 8 Hy. Ludovic. [Hydemeles ludoviciana]
all in the brown plumage. On the way home
shot 3 Rhy. solitarius [Rhyacophilus solitarius] from a little company
of 5 that were feeding in the pond hole near
Mc.Carthy's, all were birds of the year in
rather thin flesh.