MASS. (Middlesex Co.) [Middlesex County, Massachusetts] Archibuteo lagopus
1876.
(Oct.16 [October 16, 1876]) flushed two wood ducks from an
old peat hole and killed the drake
cutting a cloud of feathers from
the duck as she went off my charge
of No. 12 being too fine to reach her
life. Got back to the house at 12; B. [William Buttrick] kept
on down to "the schoolhouse piece" and
flushed six more cock making 13 in all.
The country must have been full of
them today. Small birds of all kinds
were scarce today. A few shivering, half-
frozen look red polls (D. palmarum Dendroica palmarum]) with
a rather more numerous sprinkling of
D. coronata [Dendroica coronata] were about all that I
observed which were worthy of note.
Jim Melvin started for the Cape this P.M.
Tuesday
Oct. 17 [October 17, 1876] Last night clear and cool though without
frost. Today cloudy with occasional sprinkling
in forenoon, beautifully clear & pleasant in
P.M. Started immediately after breakfast
and drove down to Hall's with Buttrick. [William Buttrick]
Beat the ground over carefully but got
up only one woodcock which B. [William Buttrick] missed.
Afterwards I got a long shot at an
Archibuteo lagopus and broke his wing.
He was very fierce and showed dauntless
courage but a vigorous compression of
the lungs speedily ended his existence.
Saw very few small birds except
sparrows all of which still remain
in abundance. The leaves in the
swamps are now all down but on
the upland the trees are still thickly
clothed & the coloring brilliant. In the
[margin]Wood duck 1[/margin]