1879. 
General Observations. 
Middlesex County, Mass. 
(Get.iG) 
1880. 
Oct. 9, 
A remarkably hot day for the season, the thermome¬ 
ter rising to 96” . The heat in the woods was suffo¬ 
cating, the scanty foliage affording but an imperfect 
shelter from the suns fierce rays. I heard several 
cicadas and this evening the autumnal crickets are in full 
chorus. 
For the past three days small birds, especially 
Warblers, have literally sv/armed in the birches at Con¬ 
cord. The woods are now in the Full glory of their 
autumn coloring; the black birches are especially fine, 
their foliage being of a perfect old-gold color. 
« 11. 
The woods are extremely beautiful this morning; 
few of the leaves have fallen and the autumn coloring if 
slightly past its height is still very vivid. The 
Squirrels and Jays were abroad and filled the thickets 
with rustlings and with their characteristic cries (Con¬ 
cord), 
* 25. 
The leaves are now for the most part downIand 
the woods getting ready for winter. The oaks still hold 
their leaves, and in sheltered nooks arnow wood and blue 
berry bushes, are thickly foliaged and nearly as green 
as in summer; the birches retain enough leaves to yellow 
the distant hiddsides 
« 29. 
The morning on Concord River was still and beautiful, 
wreaths of mist rising from the sluggish stream. Crows 
ca?^ing in the distance, the shrill screams of the Blue 
Jay echoing along the painted hillside, the Tit La5ks 
whirling and piping over the brown meadows. 
1881. 
Sept.21. 
The Willovrs were very beautiful to-day, the quiet 
road fringed with golden rod and asters, the Viburnuni 
deniquK dentatum and silky Cornell hung with symes of 
Blue berries, the coral pendants of the Night-shade 
^ gleaming along the brook edges, and theb Black alder 
1 berries already turning. The dog v/ood is just 
beginning to change color. 
“ 20. 
j Plying Stlirrel. In the woods at Pairhavon Ray 
this afternoon I felt the imd of something passing my 
1 efeeekhead and a shadow glided across the path. I suppos¬ 
ed it to be a bird till, looking up, I discovered a 
Flying Squirrel flattened against the trunk of an oak. 
We tried to make him fly again by rapping on the tree 
but he only shifted his position a little. 
