CONCORD. 
1892 
it ember 30 
Quail 
Flock of 
Sparrows 
Swamp 
Sparrows on 
Ball's Hill 
Mink 
George brought my horse and buggy at 9.15 A. M. 
and we drove to Ball’s Hill, There were very few birds alorg 
the road — Crows, Jays, and one Grass Finch. 
On reaching the Hill I found Pat, who told me that 
he had started the bevy of Quail near my cabin and had seen 
a Duck near Bensen’s Landing. 
At about 10 A. M. I walked around behind the hill 
and hearing Sparrows chirping in the button bushes around the 
small pond I went in to investigate. There proved to be a 
wholly 
good-sized flock of birds in this hollow, composed/of Sparrows 
and including Fnite-throated Sparrows ( Zonotrichia albicollis) , 
2 Field Sparrows ( Spizella pusilla ), 2 Juncos ( Junco hyemalis) , 
several Song Sparrows and at least a dozen Swamp Sparrows. 
The last were well up on the hillside and I saw nearly as 
many more on the south slope of the hill. They keep among 
the rank growth of weeds and sprouts on the burnt portion 
of the hill and show themselves only when flushed or when, 
as on this occasion, I call them out by "screeping". They 
have been here for two weeks or more and their numbers have 
increased from day to day, up to this date.^ 
A little before noon I was standing on the edge of 
at Ball's Hill 
the short canal/which I had cut under the maples near my 
cabin to serve as a canoE landing,when there was a sharp rusole 
among the fallen leaves under the button bushes on the edge 
of the river and a Mink bounded into sight and crossed the 
