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 examination 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. 
The 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 the 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. 
As we approached the hills below Ball's Hill, a 
pair of Red-shouldered Hawks began screaming among the pines 
