1898 
October 3 
********** * 
As we were at breakfast this morning a Solitary Vireo 
began singing loudly but rather brokenly in the large 
mountain ash that shades the house on the eastern side. It 
is unusual to find one of these birds so near a house and 
so far from the woods. 
The Rusty G-rackles have established an enormous 
roost in the pickerel weed (already blackened and withered 
by the early frosts) and uncut grass about the edges of the 
shallow little lagoon at the head of Beaver Dam Rapid (i.e. 
just below Dakin's Hill). As I was leaving the cabin I 
saw several flocks flying up river and when I reached the 
lagoon (5 P. M.) they were coming in from every direction 
but chiefly from that of Concord. The flocks varied in size 
from ten or a dozen to forty or fifty birds each. As they 
came over the lagoon they circled once or twice and then 
swooped down on set wings. As I was watching them arrive, 
the entire body of birds already settled were seized with 
a sudden panic and took flight in two detachments, each of 
which must have contained nearly two hundred birds. The 
noise made by their wings was like that of a gale blowing 
through pine trees. Many of them returned to the reeds 
after a short flight but upwards of 200 settled among the 
branches of a nearly leafless maple, covering it as with a 
black pall and keeping up their jingling melody until I had 
passed beyond hearing. As I kept on up river, flock after 
flock of these Blackbirds passed me on their way to the 
roost. In all I certainly saw 500 birds. 
