feffr <jT,4l 0.1 (l(>) 
CONCORD, 
1905 
October 17 
At 7.30 P. M. I started to walk from the cabin to the 
Farm, taking a lighted lantern. It was a clear, calm starlit 
night. As I neared Birch Gate, two Muskrats in the river 
made a succession of abrupt, startled plunges close to the 
bank. Nothing else of interest happened until I reached the 
woods that lie between the Farm and the Ritchie place. As I 
was crossing the causeway in these woods, a. Saw-whet Owl 
began calling among the large maples on my right and another 
answered from the distance to the westward. The first was 
about 50 yards off. He regularly uttered eight or ten notes 
in rather slow succession. His voice was startlingly loud 
in the still night air. His calls reminded me strongly of 
the notes of the Black-billed Cuckoo’s song. Indeed, they 
were very like them but louder and given more slowly. He 
called in all a dozen times or more. This happened about 
half an hour before the moon rose. 
After listening to the Saw Whets for several minutes, 
I started on,when I noticed for the first time what looked 
like a V-shaped piece of white paper in the path, I walked 
forward and stopped within two feet of it, holding the lan¬ 
tern well up. It still looked like a piece of paper and I 
was about to stooo and pick it up wlien a dusky form began 
to materialize about it. This slowly resolved itself into 
the shape of a large Skunk who had flattened himself on his 
belly in the path,facing me. I now saw his nose working 
I 
