1877 
Gonaral Observations, 
Middlesex County, Mass, 
(Aug> 9J : Warblers began migrating about the first of this 
month and every night since lisping chirp in the star¬ 
lit sky above have been more f*»eand more frequently heard. 
1879. 
May 8, : She Willows are getting very beautiful, the grass 
on the moadovrs is springing up like magic, and eowilips, 
now in full bloom, sprinkles the waving green with its 
surface with its golden clusters. 
“ 10. i; Although vegetation advanced slowly early in the 
: season, it has taken rapid strides within the past few 
I days. The horse chestnuts are already dense with foli¬ 
age, the maples, wild cherries, willows, lilacs, and 
birches draped in that exquisite tender green peculiar 
to the first stage of their incipient foliage. The buds 
on the oaks and hickories are swollen to large size and 
will open within a few days. The cherry trees came in¬ 
to full bloom this morning, and the pear trees will short¬ 
ly follow. 
A cloudless and exceedingly warm day with south 
wind, one of those rare days when thob air is filled 
with smoky haze and scented with the subtle fragrance of 
early flowers and growing things, whan the trees burst 
almost simultaneously into leaf and one can almost mark 
the progress of vegetation from hour to hour. 
A cloudless but very smoky sky, exceedingly hot for 
the seaon. Thermometer 85®. The temperature to 
northward is reported as even warmer than here, the ther¬ 
mometer at Bangor, Maine reaching 100® to-day. There 
must have been an extraordinary flight of birds last 
night for this morning the whole country was literally 
swarming with them, every thicket and woodland nook hold¬ 
ing its score or more of tired little feathered travel¬ 
ers. The quote of our surrarier residents is now more 
than full, being swelled by many individuals bound fur¬ 
ther north; the migrants, however, are easily recognized 
from resident birds; being found usually in flocks and in 
all sorts of places where their respective species do 
not breed. 
Nearly as warm yesterday but with more breeze which 
partially removed the smoky haze. Birds fully as abun¬ 
dant as yesterday. Words fail to express the activity 
and abundance of bird li^e in the woods and re adows dur¬ 
ing this brief season; every thicket v/as literally 
swarming with birds nearly all in full song. The oaks 
and walnuts are now green with opening foliage, the ten¬ 
der leaflets of many of the former, of a delicate cria 
son tint almost like that of the maples in aurumn. The 
birches to-day cast a perceptible shade and their branch® 
re hickly hung with slender pendant catkins. I think 
the dandelions first blossomed yesterday; they now sprin- 
