CONCORD 
) 
i 
1892 
June 
Intense 
heat . 
It silences 
the birds. 
Song of the 
Grass Finch 
I drove Miss Derby and her niece to Ball’s Hill 
this morning and to Walden in the afternoon. The heat was 
too much for the birds to-day and I heard scarcely any singing, 
except in the early morning about our house. During the 
drives just mentioned I saw nothing but common species.] 
Grass Finches are still singing freely. This 
evening, just before the shower, one, sitting in the top of 
an apple tree near the house, held my close attention for 
at least ten minutes. It was the finest singer that I have 
heard this season, or rather I should say that its singing 
was the finest for the same bird has frequented this field 
since April but, as I have noted in former years, the song 
certainly gains in both iichness and expression as the 
season advances. The April singing was disappointing, the 
May better, but not until this evening have I heard the bird 
at its best. I care more and more for its song as I get 
older. It seems to me to combine in some degree the sweet 
simplicity of the Song Sparrow’s song with the richness of 
the Fox Sparrow's and in addition to possess a spiritual 
quality not found in either. Sweet, simple, rich, fervid, 
it is all these and more! 
3^ 
