To Ball* s 
Hill 
• 
Bluebirds 
and 
Song 
Sparrows 
Crows and Jays 
Musk-ratd 
Slaughter of 
Musk-rats 
Mink 
Brown Creeper 
e Finches 
To Ball’s Hill by boat at 9.30 A.M. The paddle 
down river was delightful. Scarce a minute passed when 
I did not hear the tender warble of a Bluebird or the 
sweet chanting of a Song Sparrow. Both species have 
evidently quadrupled in numbers since yesterday although 
some allowance must obviously be ma.de for the peculiarly 
favorable conditions to-day. 
Crows and Jays were unusually numerous and 
noisy but I still see no reason to think that either 
species has yet received any accessions from the South. 
I passed two Musk-rats swimming about among submerged 
bushes but saw no Ducks or other water-fowl. 
Soon after reaching Ball's Hill I heard a suc¬ 
cession of shots along the river above and presently 
Warren appeared in a small canoe. He had nine Musk-rats 
and I heard him five times afterwards. I fear he has 
left few of th^e interesting animals in this stretch of 
river. He came very near shooting a mink which Bensen 
started from a stone wall bn my land and which plunged 
into the water and dove near Warren's boat. 
E a rly in the forenoon I walked through the 
woods to Davis's Hill, where I found a Creeper and three 
gray Purple Finches among the pines. From the northern 
extremity of the hill I could see that the river was open 
as far, at least, as Carlisle bridge, but the meadow ice 
