3 . 
one came hunting along the weeds by the ditch 
uttering a harsh ill-natured tchimp - 
flpptemhe r 17. 1899 - Sunday . 
Saw a Maryland yellowthroat out by the tarn. 
It was a male as could he seen hy his ' bl ^ k . 
mask. I do not think that they change their 
colors in the fall. This one^would nervously 
twitch his tail and give a {chimp as he peered^ 
at me through the leaves, then nervously opping 
away farther; at last he flew off along the 
ground with a hobby, twitching flight like a 
ch.ickade6 • 
This afternoon I went down hy the ditch. In 
a patch of sticktights, the flower of which is 
called snuff weed, I saw a family of Indigo 
huntings. The male was growing dull. They were 
very shy and I could only see them when they were 
moving. They uttered a shy tsip or a sudden _zip. 
Y/hen one started to fly any distance it would 
come into plain sight and give a long harsh 
indrawn tseep-es keeping it up on the wing. 
Three goldfinches, a male, female and young one 
were feeding on snuff weed sticktights. The 
male was turning brown. He would hang head down 
like a Chickadee after seeds. The young one 
kept up a whispered se-pese-pe all the time. 
Coming home I was watching some English sparrows 
in Mr. Pettey*^ currant hushes when a reddish^ 
brown bird lit among them with a harsh note like 
tse - tse, and I saw that it was a white-throated 
soarrow. Then I went home. Heard an Indigo 
hunting singing down by the ditch tonight jus 
at sunset. It sang only once after that for I 
was not far off - our barn is perhaps j rods 
away and I was in it. I heard a few conversa 
tional tseps as if in approval. 
