there were no Red-tails there and no Black Ducks in the 
little meadow behind the pines. 
Trees 
barke d 
by 
Rabbits 
Near the head of the large meadow north of the pines 
I came upon Gallant setting out a number of decoys. • . . 
He says that between sixty and one hundred Black Ducks have 
come into this meadow every evening of late and ... 
George Holden, whom I met later, confirmed this statement as 
to the evening flights. 
After dining at the cabin I walked about on the sides 
of Ball's Hill for an hour or more. The damage which the 
Rabbits have done to my shrubs and young trees the past 
winter exceeds anything that has ever happened within my 
observation before. At the eastern end of the hill hundreds 
if not thousands of trees and shrubs have been ruined and in 
places several rods square scarce one has escaped. . 
Only a very few of the common Hazels have been molested. 
One of my Hawthorns is ruined. The teeth marks show that the 
Rabbit always bites across the stem, never up and down, and 
that it invariably works above the level of the snow. It 
apparently never barks white pines or birches and these are 
almost the only trees found here which enjoy complete 
immunity from its attacks. I started a Rabbit from its form 
in the center of the devastated tract this afternoon. 
I left the cabin for Concord before 4 P. M. and, 
paddling slowly, followed the shore line across Barrett's. 
Meadow and around behind Holden's Hill. The wind had fallen 
