jJ 
Prothonotary 
Warbler 
on 
Ball's Hill 
p(Bk-billed 
Grebes (?) 
This Prothonotary had, as I have said, a peculia.r 
song with little or nothing of the Sandpiper quality 
ordinarily so obvious in the song of this species. Until I 
saw him I did not so much as suspect his identity. Besides 
the song, I heard several times a chirp, sharp and petulant, 
very like that of a Water Thrush. He was a handsome bird, 
but not in really high plumage, the yellow of his head and 
breast being less rich and bright than in most males at 
this season. He seemed restless and also shy. Indeed I 
did not ever get very near him except when I first peeped 
out at him from my cabin door and then, of course, I was 
so well concealed that he failed to notice me. Not since 
1886 have I seen a Prothonotary id Massachusetts, although 
I have repeatedly looked for the species along this river 
the 
at t k- i -e season of migration. 
fWh ile in the canoe this morning watching the 
Prothonotary, I heard what I took at first to be a Green 
Heron. The sound seemed then to come from the flooded 
thicket but when I paddled around this,it came obviously 
from far up Great Meadow. Although I paddled towards it 
until I could go no farther, it was still in the distance 
apparently near "Three Oak Island". It now sounded very 
nearly (yet not quite ) like the ordinary, prolonged 
outcry of the Pied-billed Grebe(the cuck-cuck-cuck , etc.notes). 
Evidently two birds were making it, one regula.rly answering the 
other after an interval. I finally set them down (still 
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