and, crouching low with the head and neck carried close to 
the ground, would move off at a steady and very rapid walk, 
threading its way through the rank grass so dextrously as 
scarce to cause any of their tops to tremble. After going 
ten or fifteen yards,it would stop and raise its head again. 
Gilbert tells me that he heard the Bitterns 
pumping through last week,but they were silent to-day. 
At evening I took a long walk, starting before 
sunset and staying out until the light had faded from the 
West. The sky was cloudless, the air cool and refreshing 
and the birds sang with unusual fervency and vigor, making 
the woods and fields ring. I heard two Tanagers, at least 
seven different Wilson’s Thrushes, a Whippoorwill and great 
numbers of the commoner kinds. 
I was surprised to hear two Partridges drumming at 
short, regular intervals, one on the stone wall at the west 
end of Ball’s Hill, the other at the old station at the 
north end of Davis's Swamp. I do not quite understand why 
they should have started drumming again so late in the 
season — for the Ball's Hill bird, at least, has a brood 
of young several weeks old. 
The Grass Finches and Field Sparrows were also 
singing freely but I heard neither Bluebirds nor Robins 
to-day. 
n 
