him twice daily for a week or more. Heard Red-shouldered 
Hawks screar ing at Ball's Hill and at the Farm. Started a 
male Cooper's Hawk from the swamp behind the hill and saw 
a Marsh Hawk sailing over Pulpit Rock woods. 
Saw deer tracks almost everywhere to-day. James tells 
me that the number of Deer present during the past month has 
positively alarmed him because of the menace to our crops. 
He saw ten at one time in the Ritchie field about a week 
ago and Bensen reports that nine crossed his field at about 
the same time. James saw four file through our door-yard 
and four looking through the wire fence of the poultry-yard. 
They show little fear of man and none whatever of buildings. 
Our flower-garden is covered with their tracks and I 
actually found two rather fresh prints in our barn cellar. 
Partridges are said to be more numerous than for 
several years past. I flushed at least five different 
birds to-day between Ball's Hill and the Farm, without 
leaving the roadway that leads there through the fields 
and marsh 
