EAST LEXINGTON 
1893 
May 18 
Upper 
Reservoir 
Pond 
A favored 
nook for 
birds 
In the early morning I heard a Water Thrush and a ; 
Warbling Vireo singing near the hotel. Rose at 6.30 and 
breakfasted at 7. At 7.30 Faxon joined me by appointment 
and we started at once for the pond. The hotel landlord 
supplied us with a large, heavy, flat-bottomed boat, square 
at both ends, which I propelled very slowly and laboriously 
by sculling, there being only one oar. In this way we 
crossed the pond lengthways, seeing and hearing a number of 
Grebes, a Florida Gallinule, a Least Bittern, several 
Carolina and Virginia Rails, and a very large number of 
Red-wings. Swarms of Bank Swallows with a few Barn Swallows 
and an occasional Eave or White-bellied Swallow were skim¬ 
ming low over the water and now and then a Swift dashed past. 
We saw a Kingfisher, also. 
Landing, we watched the Gallinules and Grebes for 
about an hour and then followed up the brook which empties 
into the pond for half a mile or more, passing through 
several pretty little meadows surrounded by thickets of 
bitches and alders and finally reaching a low hill covered 
with birches, oaks and white pines, all young trees 20 to 
30 feet tall. The brook flows half around the base of this 
hill. There is nothing peculiar about the place but Faxon 
considers it unusually good ground for birds and it did not 
fail us to-day. Indeed, the number and variety of birds 
