0 +^ 
1898 
Mav 20 
CONCORD. 
Spent two hours or more immediately after breakfast 
rambling about in the woods on and behind Ball’s Hill. They 
were si,.ply swarming with birds, but the only northern¬ 
breeding species noted were a Wilson's Black-cap, a Black- 
poll, a Water Thrush, a Canadian Warbler (one or two pairs 
breed here) and a Lincoln's Finch. All the others were 
species which summer here but it hardly seems possible that 
all could have been really our local birds. There was a female 
Humming-bird and a Thrasher among them. 
I found the Lincoln's Finch in a thicket of alders 
and cornels surrounded by dense young white pines. It'was 
very tame and fearless, allowing me to approach within a 
few yards and I watched it for fifteen or twenty minutes. 
It spent the whole of this time on the ground, rambling 
about and feeding among the fallen leaves ’which it tossed 
about with its bill but did not once attempt to remove by 
scratching with its feet. It was slower of movement and 
altogether much less alert and animated in appearance than 
a Song Sparrow and its gait as at all times a hopping one 
whereas the Song Sparrow often walks. It had much less 
7 than usual and might have been easily mistaken for 
a small, dark Song Sparrow by a. superficial observer. It 
occasionally paused a few moments to bask in the sun in 
little openings among the bushes. I did not hear it utter 
any sound. 
(o 
