Spent the forenoon on the meadow shore opposite 
Ball’s Hill, where I met by appointment Albert Wood, the 
surveyor, and Mr. Arnold, a farmer. The object of this 
meeting was to determine the boundaries of some twenty acres 
of meadow which I have just bought of Charles S. Smith of 
Lincoln. 
While we were tramping about, two Carolina Rails 
were singing and one of the Bitterns pumping at frequent 
intervals. I also heard the first Chat that I have ever 
met with in Concord. It sang two or three times very near 
me in oak scrub (sprout oaks of two years growth) near the 
roadway that comes down to the meadow from the Nevins farm. 
I think the bird, if established there, must be nesting on 
the other side of the pasture where, along a rail fence, 
stretches a thicket of green briar that would do credit to 
southern Connecticut or the Middle States. Arnold says that 
he drove a cow into this thicket last year and that she was 
absolutely unable to force her way through it. 
The "Kicker" was singing this evening somewhere 
out on the Great Meadow. 
