72 
1875. 
Gallinage wilsoni. 
Middlesex County, Mass, 
(Apr.22) 
zontally like a lance in rest. His adversary, however, 
declined the combat and turning tail sneaked off quickly 
into the grass. I returned to this spot in the evening 
twilight, hoping to hear the Snipe drum. Only two wont 
out of the swaroip at dusk both simply uttering the usual 
scaina. 
“ 23. 
Lingering among the bushes on the edge of Pout Pond 
it was most interesting to hear the variety of bird’s 
and other voices as day passed into night. The Robins 
ended the former period with a grand chorus; a brief in¬ 
terval of silence followed broken only by the incessant 
rasp of the wood bepder- borers in the dead larch on the 
further side of the ponj|. The next moment a weird 
winnowing of vrings began directly overhead ulminating in 
almost a shreik, and fairly startled me for a moment un¬ 
til I recognized the author, a Wilson’s Snipe. At the 
same time several others rose from the marsh to the west¬ 
ward each giving his sham scaine as he flew, while an 
answering drum came from the Block Island meadow. Fi¬ 
nally the merry peep of the hylas swelled up from every 
pool, and with the croaking of numerous Ranahalocina for¬ 
med a chorus that would last till the following dawn, 
a fev/ minutes later a lage Owl sailed overhead, dimly 
outlined against the sky. 
May 8. 
Stared six on the Geseer meadows at Concord. Tb«y 
flew directly out of sight. 
Sept.18. 
Beat the Great Meadows at Concord thoroughly but 
found only one Snipe. 
Oct. 7. 
Saw five in the Fresh Pond swamps. Nesbitt tells 
me that he killed seven last week, about swampy places 
in the fields. 
“ 0. 
Started four on the edge of the Groat Me4ows and 
three from the borders of a pool of rain water in a 
ploughed field (Concord). 
Nov. 15. 
Melvin shot one at Concord—the last bird of the 
season. 
1876. 
Apr. 1. 
One, the first of the season; was seen in the Brick¬ 
yard Swamp. The frost is all out of the ground the 
grass on sunny exposures getting green, and I heard the 
first hylas to-day. 
• 22. 
The Nesbitts shot eleven in the Fresh Pond marshes 
to-day, most of them in the Brickyarwd Swamp. 
• 30. 
Two in Fresh Pond swamps. 
May 2. 
Started sixteen at Concord. 
