Gallinago Wilsoni - one - Cambridge Danielson
MASS. (Middlesex Co.) [Middlesex County, Massachusetts]
1876
Saturday
April 1 [April 1, 1876] Clear with high W. [west] wind. Off after breakfast
starting out in my buggy for a try at hawks
etc. Near Fresh p. [Fresh Pond] saw a crow coming very
high up and getting out the gun shot at
him as he was directly overhead and dropping 
him into the road. Next drove up over
the hill, stopping to let my quail loose at
the spot where I shot her last fall. The
male died about a week back & the female was
getting so thin that I found she would share
the same fate unless released. The wings
healed up within two weeks of their capture
so that they could fly but subsequent futile
flutterings about the box in which they
were confined opened the wounds afresh
and so influenced the members that
they lost the power of flight & wasted
away under the influence of the constantly
festering wounds. Driving through Prospect
St. I shot into a flock of cedar birds killing
two plain birds: one of them was however
interesting from the fact that the yellow tipping
of the tail feathers was entirely gone- I saw
gone because the frayed ends of the feathers
showed the action of excessive wear.
Here I heard the first Hylodes of the
season piping cheerily. Driving up through
the willows I cam home by way of the
Warren place, Waltham, firing at a crow
which sat over the road within good range
& which I unaccountably missed or only
succeeded in wounding. Saw a few
fox sparrows. A snipe was started by
Danielson on the E. edge of the lower or
brickyard swamp. The frost is all out &
the fields getting green in sunny exposures