CONCORD. 
1889 
June 23 
The bird 
mystery 
again 
To Concord, by 9 A.M. train, Faxon joining me at 
Waverley. I had sent my man George on by an earlier train 
to get "Don" and he met us with the dog at Lincoln. Upon 
reaching Concord we hired Nealey*s boat which is kept at 
the new granite bridge from which we made our start. 
On reaching the meadow above the Fitchburg R.R. 
bridge, we put on our wading boots and started in with the 
dog. The meadow proved an easy one to search for there 
was little mud or water and but few holes. Most of the 
ground was covered with wiry, rather short grass but a bed 
of canary grass taller than my head extended along the -eer- 
course 
»er of a brook for 100 yards or more. We trampled this 
grass down and the dog nosed into every nook and corner of 
it. Then I hunted him closely over the meadow back and 
forth. He pointed a nest filled with young Red-wings and 
rooted out numerous Sparrows, Bobolinks, etc. but not a 
trace of our mysterious singer could either he or we find. 
After spending fully three hours in the search and going 
over the ground with the utmost care we left it in disgust 
and no wiser than when we entered it. If the kik-kik-kik - 
is a bird, which I begin to doubt, he is a strangely 
elusive one. 
A Bittern came into this meadow about noon, evi¬ 
dently to feed. After alighting we saw him make several 
