306 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
night warbler the white-eyed yireo ? not yet 
here. 
April 8, 1854.At Nut Meadow Brook, 
saw or rather heard a musk-rat plunge into the 
brook before me, and saw him endeavoring in 
vain to bury himself in the sandy bottom, look¬ 
ing like an amphibious animal. I stooped and 
taking him by the tail, which projected, tossed 
him ashore. He did not lose the points of the 
compass, but turned directly to the brook again, 
though it was toward me, and plunging in 
buried himself in the mud, and that was the 
last I saw of him. Saw a large bird sail along 
over the edge of Wheeler’s cranberry meadow 
just below Fair Haven, which I at first thought 
a gull. But with my glass I found it appeared 
like a hawk and had a perfectly white head and 
tail, and broad black or blackish wings. It 
sailed and circled along over the low cliff and 
the crows dived at it in the field of my glass. 
I saw it well both above and beneath as it 
turned, and then it passed off to hover over the 
cliffs at a greater height. It was undoubtedly 
a wdnte-headed eagle, though to the eye it was 
but a large hawk. 
I find that I can criticise my composition best 
when I stand at a little distance from it, when 
I do not see it, for instance. I make a little 
chapter of contents which enables me to recall 
