C Oil CORD 
1898 
k 6 
j__Spent the forenoon working in the cabin. At 4 P, LI. 
started for Concord, sailing most of the way and landing at 
the Buttricks f , Made several calls and took tea at the 
Keyes* J It was raining when I left jtherej a little before 
nine o’clock and the night was so dark that I could hardly 
find my way back to the canoe under the gloom of the willows 
at the landing. 
nevertheless I had. an exceptionally pleasant and 
interesting paddle down to Ball’s Hill. At first I heard 
nothing but the harsh summer of innumerable toads 
and the occasional tromp of a bull frog, but as I entered 
the meadows I began to hear Carolina Rails and presently 
the song of the mysterious "Kicker" came faintly to my ears. 
The latter bird proved to be somewhere near the middle of 
the Great Meadow about opposite the upper end of the Holt, 
At the same reach but very near the river bank three Short¬ 
billed Marsh Wrens were singing, not interruptedly or at 
wide intervals, as most diurnal birds sing when heard at 
night, but steadily, continuously and with really excep¬ 
tional vigor,while the intervals between the songs were much 
shorter than I have ever known them to be in the daytime. 
The Concord clock struck nine as I sat listening, and the 
night was as dark and rainy as ever. I have little doubt 
that these Wrens kept up their concert during the remainder 
of the night. I had heard three Long-billed Wrens at the 
Beaver Rapid on my way up stream in the afternoon but they 
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