11 April 1853 – 17 April 1853

I hear the clear, loud whistle of a purple finch, somewhat like and nearly as loud as the robin, from the elm by Whiting’s. The maple which I think is a red one, just this side of Wheildon’s, is just out this morning. 9 a. M. — To Haverhill via Cambridge and Boston. Dr. Harris says that that early black-winged, buff- edged butterfly is the Vanessa Antiopa, and is intro- duced from Europe, and is sometimes found in this state alive in winter. The orange-brown one with scal- loped wings, and smaller somewhat, is Vanessa Progne. The early pestle-shaped bug or beetle is a cicindela, of which there are three species, one of them named from a semicolon-like mark on it. Vide Hassley on spiders in Boston Journal of Natural History. At Natural History Rooms, saw the female red-wing, striped white and ash; female cow-bird, ashy-brown. First. The swamp sparrow is ferruginous-brown (spotted with black) and ash above about neck; brown- ish-white beneath; undivided chestnut crown. Second. The grass-bird, grayish-brown, mingled with ashy-whitish above; light, pencilled with dark brown -beneath; no marked crown; outer tail feathers whitish, perhaps a faint bar on wing. Third. Field sparrow, smaller than either; marked like first, with less black, and less distinct ash on neck, and less ferruginous and no distinct crown. Fourth. Savannah sparrow, much like second, with more black, but not noticeable white in tail, and a little more brown; no crown marked. Emberiza miliaria Gmel. (What is it in Nuttall ?) appears to be my young of purple finch. One Maryland yellow-throat, probably female, has no black on side head, and is like a summer yellow- bird except that the latter has ends of the wings and tail black. The yellow-rump warbler (what is it in Nuttall ?) is bluish-gray, with two white bars on wings, a bright yellow crown, side breasts, and rump. Female less distinct. Blackburnian is orange-throated. American redstart, male, is black forward, coppery- orange beneath and stripe on wings and near base of tail. Female dark ashy and fainter marks.

Haverhill. — Pewee days and April showers. First hear toads (and take off coat), a loud, ringing sound filling the air, which yet few notice. First shad caught at Haverhill to-day; first alewife 10th. Fisher- men say that no fish can get above the dam at Lawrence. No shad, etc., were caught at Lowell last year. Were catching smelts with a small seine. It says in deeds that brooks shall be opened or obstructions removed by the 20th of April, on account of fish.

Mouse-ear. Apri 16. Either barn or bank swallows overhead. Birds loosen and expand their feathers and look larger in the rain.

Sunday. The elder leaf is the most forward of any shrub or tree I have seen; more than one inch long. Visited two houses of refuge about one hundred and sixty years old, two miles or more east of Haver- hill village, — the Peaslee houses, substantial brick houses some forty by twenty feet. Two rows of bricks project between the two stories; cavities left for the staging; marks of ovens (which projected outdoors) cut off; white oak timber, fifteen by twelve inches, sound; space in chimney above fireplace about three feet deep (see stars); two or three very narrow windows; large-sized bricks. ‘These were the houses of Joseph and Nathaniel Peaslee, appointed houses of refuge by the town about 1690. The occupant of one, not a very old man, told me that his grandfather, Joseph Peaslee, was seventeen years old when the French and Indians attacked the town, killed Rolfe, etc. A Newcomb from Cape Cod lives in the other. There are as many as six garrison-houses and houses of refuge still stand- ing in Haverhill. I have seen four still entire and one partly so, all brick. Field sparrows common now. The Merrimack is yellow and turbid in the spring; will run clear anon. The red maple begins to show stamens here. A plea- sant hilly country north of Great Pond. What were those five large gray ducks with white wing-coverts ?