CONCORD 
1893 
ember 12 At daybreak C, heard a Screech Owl wailing near the 
cabin. When I stepped outside a little after sunrise, 
Snow Buntings were whistling over the meadows, apparently 
high in air. 
C. left for Cambridge soon after breakfast and 
Spalman arrived a little later, having ridden from Cambridge 
on his bicycle. We took a short walk in the forenoon, seeing 
nothing of much interest but before this -- at about 8.30 
A. M.— — I rambled off alone and met with a number of birds. 
The first were a large flock of Tree Sparrows on the edge 
of Bensen's field. They were flitting about among some 
bushes and there was a good deal of really fine singing 
from the old males. In the pines near the glacial hollow 
six or eight Chickadees, a Red-bellied Nuthatch and a 
Golden-crest were busily feeding. The Nuthatch, a fine male, 
was extracting the seeds from some pitch-pine cones. 
Looking off over the river, I quickly discovered 
two Coots, one in precisely the same spot where the bird was 
seen last evening, the other a little above,well out in the 
open water, both swimming about in devious courses, nodding 
their heads and picking up food of some kind from the 
water, A Red-tailed Hawk was also in sight, perched on a 
maple over the river. 
In the afternoon Spelman and I took a long walk — 
to Lawrence's fine old woods and beyond. Started two large 
flocks of Sparrows from weed fields. One flock contained 
