Chatham, Mass. [Chatham, Massachusetts]
1876.
Friday
May 5 [May 5, 1876] Cloudy with wind E. [east]. Left Boston at 8 A.M.
on the O.C.R.R. [Old Colony Rail Road] with Messrs. Cory & Hull
and arrived at Harwich at 12. Thence by
stage 8 miles to Chatham which we reached
by 2 P.M. Put up at one Alonzo Nye's with
whom Cory was acquainted and changing
our things started out at once in quest
of birds. I shot a fine [female] Sturnella magna
that sprang under my feet from the beach
grass and later in afternoon shot both
barrels at a [female] Circus Hudsonius that
passed me within long range. Hull 
shot a very fine Aegelaius phoeniceus [Agelaius phoeniceus].
Sturnella magna is more abundant
here than any place I have ever
been in but are also more shy than
I have ever seen them before.
  Saturday
May 6 [May 6, 1876] Cloudy with E. [east] wind. Commenced raining at
about 10 A.M. and rained hard all the rest
of the day. Rose at 5 A.M. and getting breakfast
started off in a dory with Lon. Nye as
boatman, to pull out to the S. [south] end of
Monomoy island. Both wind & tide being
against us the progress was necessarily
very slow, and we did not reach our [delete]goal[/delete]
destination till 2 P.M. with a tow behind
a sail boat the last 4 miles to boot.
We saw by the way a number of interesting
birds, among others small companies of
Sterna Caspia [delete]?(or S. regia)[/delete] at intervals
both alone and among the gulls. They
sat on the sand bars exactly [delete]like[/delete] as
the smaller species do and their flight