Iq8v ^7,41.12- (°\) 
CONCORD. 
1893 
April 2 
Ball 1 s Hill 
Birds Heard 
at 
Hoffmanviand I spent a quiet, uneventful night in 
the little log cabin at Ball’s Hill. We rose this morning 
at daylight and found the sky perfectly clear, the air much 
cooler with a north-west wind which came in puffs, fore¬ 
runners of the gale that blew most of the day. Song Spar¬ 
rows were singing when we stepped out of the door and a 
Red-wing soon joined them. Next, the solemn, bell-like 
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voice of a Carolina "Dove came from the Bedford shore. <ve 
daybreak 
Return of 
the Ball’s 
Hill Phoebe 
scrambled up past the cabin to the top of tne hill. Two 
Tree Sparrows were singing delightfully in the alders on 
the edge of the swamp and a Blue Jay giving the bell note 
near them. The song of a Robin came faintly from the 
direction of Bensen’s house and that of another more dis¬ 
tinctly from across the river. 
We heard nothing more until we returned to the 
cabin, where a Phoebe greeted us with a few brief snatches 
of song. Certain slight peculiarities in his voice iden¬ 
tified him at once as the same bird which spent a month 
or more near the cabin last spring but, failing to secure 
a mate, finally left,returning again for a brief visit in 
late summer. He had a companion this morning, a silent 
bird which I trust is a female, although the two did not 
appear to be on the best of terms. 
After a slight and hurried breakfast, we launched 
the boat and,following the west shore,paddled down river 
to within half-a-mile of Carlisle Bridge, where we landed 
