For z ana .iama leans is ( ? ) . 
Concord, 
'1898. 
June 11. 
( No . 2 ) . 
Mass . 
covered range of hills between. 
There is another peculiarity about the song of the "Kick- 
er " which I remember to have noted the season when the bird 
was so common about Cambridge and which impresses me constant- 
ly here now. It is that the sound changes continually in 
volume, the increase and decrease being sometimes gradual and 
sometimes abrupt. Ordinarily every fourth or fifth repetition 
comes loud and distinct but sometimes an especially distinct 
repetition succeeds a particularly faint one. Gilbert thought 
this evening that the bird must be flying about over the mea- 
dow but I have little doubt that he is all the time on the 
ground and that he either faces in different directions making 
a quarter turn after each song like a peeping Woodcock or that 
he is running about and that the volume of the sound depends 
upon whether his voice comes from an open space or from under 
a more or less dense tangle of grass. 
