We landed again at Ball's Hill, which we climbed. 
The view over the flooded meadows was very attractive, the 
great expanse of water with its bordering woods and isolated 
clusters of trees resembling perfectly some natural lake, 
dotted with small wooded islands. Bolles found a large, new- 
looking nest in a tall pine under which were several pellets 
apparently of a large Owl. In a sandy field we found a large 
number of cylindrical, elongated masses of closely-felted 
mouse fur, intermixed with fragments of skulls and bones. 
At first we thought they must be Owl pellets but close examina¬ 
tion satisfied us that they were really faeces, doubtless of 
Foxes. We found others composed of rabbit fur and bones in 
a wood path lower down river. 
Tlje spreading oak at the Ball’s Hill Landing has 
•been cut down the past winter. We counted the rings, Bolles 
making 129 on one side, I 119 on tne other. I had no idea 
this tree was so old, for it was not large and looked young 
and vigorous. 
Just below Ball's Hill we heard a great rustling 
in the dry leaves in a thicket bounded on one side by the 
water, on the other by a stone wall. The noise was fully as 
loud as a Partridge or Woodchuck would have made but it was 
caused by Fox Sparrows, a dozen or more of Which whirred up 
into the bushes when they saw our boat. ] 
