4 June 1855 – 10 June 1855

P. M.— To Hubbard’s Close. Clears up in forenoon. Some of the scouring-rush gathered the Ist begins to open its whorls or stages in the chamber; say sheds pollen to-morrow. Not quite yet the How mulberry pollen. White clover out probably some days, also red as long. It has just cleared off after this first rain of conse- quence for a long time, and now I observe the shadows of massive clouds still floating here and there in the peculiarly blue sky; which dark shadows on field and wood are the more remarkable by contrast with the light yellow-green foliage now, and when they rest on evergreens they are doubly dark, like dark rings about the eyes of June. Great white-bosomed clouds, darker beneath, float through the cleared sky and are seen against the deliciously blue sky, such a sky as we have not had before. Thus it is after the first import- ant rain at this season. The song of birds is more lively and seems to have a new character; a new season has commenced. In the woods I hear the tanager and chewink and red-eye. It is fairly summer, and mos- quitoes begin to sting in earnest. I see the dandelions now generally gone to seed amid the grass — their downy spheres. There are now many potentillas as- cendant, and the Erigeron bellidifolius is sixteen inches high and quite handsome, by the railroad this side of turn-off. Redstarts still very common in the Trillium Woods (yesterday on Assabet also). Note tche tche, tche vit, etc. I see some dark on the breast. The Lycopodium dendroideum now shows fresh green tips like the hemlock. Greenish puffs on panicled andromedas. Lint comes off on to clothes from the tender leaves, but it is clean dirt and all gone when you get home; and now the crimson velvety leafets of the black oak, showing also a crimson edge on the downy under sides, are beautiful as a flower, and the more salmon white oak. The Linnea borealis has grown an inch. But are not the flowers winter-killed? I see dead and blackened flower-buds. Perhaps it should have opened before. Wintergreen has grown two inches. See a warbler much like the black and white creeper, but perched warbler-like on trees; streaked slate, white, and black, with a large white and black mark on wing, crown divided by a white line and then chestnut (?) or slate or dark, and then white above and below eye, breast and throat streaked downward with dark, rest beneath white. Can it be the common black and white creeper? Its note hardly reminds me of that. It is somewhat like pse pse pse pse, psa psa, weese weese weese, or longer. It did not occur to me that it was the same till I could not find any other like this in the book. Cotton-grass apparently two or three days out. Geum, apparently some days. In the clintonia swamp I hear a smart, brisk, loud and clear whistling warble, quite novel and remarkable, something like te chit a wit, te chit a wit, tchit a wit, tche tche. It is all bright- yellow or ochreous orange (?) below except vent, and a dark or black crescent on breast, with a white line about eye. Above it appears a nearly uniform dark blue slate, legs light, bill dark (? ), tail long and forked. I think it must be the Canada warbler, seen in ’37,! though that seems short for this. It is quite different from the warbler of May 30. The recent high winds have turned the edges of young leaves by beating and killing them. Ellen Emerson finds the Viola pubescens scarce to- day, but the Actea alba in full bloom. Eddy has brought a great polygonatum from Medford, which he says grew in the woods there. I do not find a satisfactory account of it. It differs from the pubescens of Gray, in that the leaves can hardly be called downy beneath and are clasping, the peduncles are two to five flowered (instead of one to two) and the perianth is four fifths of an inch long (instead of a half). Perianth white or whitish with green lobes. {t differs from the canali- culatum in not being channelled obviously (though angled between the leaves), the filaments not being smooth nor inserted in the middle of the tube. Carex scoparia (? ) in meadows some days.

P. M.— To Clamshell by river. Yellow Bethlehem-star in prime. Aphyllon, or orobanche, well out apparently several days. Nuphar Kalmiana budded above water. Green-briar flower out apparently two or three days. Low blackberry out in low ground. That very early (or in winter green radical leaf) plant by ash is the Myosotis laxa, open since the 28th of May, say June Ist. Ranunculus reptans, say two days out, river being very low. Com- mon cress well out along river. Side-flowering sandwort apparently three days out in Clamshell flat meadow. Some oxalis done, say two or three days, on ditch bank. Ranunculus repens in prime. Yellow clover well out some days. Flowering ferns, reddish-green, show on meadows. Green oak-balls. Walking along the upper edge of the flat Clamshell meadow, a bird, probably a song sparrow (for I saw two chipping about immediately after), flew up from between my feet, and I soon found its nest remarkably concealed. It was under the thickest of the dry river wreck, with an entry low on one side, full five inches long and very obscure. On looking close I detected the eggs from above by looking down through some openings in the wreck about as big as sparrows’ eggs, through which I saw the eggs, five in number. I never saw the nest so perfectly concealed.

P. M.— Up Assabet by boat to survey Hos- mer’s field. On the Island I hear still the redstart — tsp tsp tsip tsip, tsit-i-yet, or sometimes tsip tsvp tsvp tszp, tse vet. A young male. It repeats this at regular intervals for a long time, sitting pretty still now. Waxwork open and pollen one or two days. I notice a clam lying up, and two or three cleared or light-colored places, apparently bream-nests commenced. You see the dark eye and shade of June on the river as well as on land, and a dust-like tint on river, appar- ently from the young leaves and bud-scales, covering the waters, which begin to be smooth, and imparting a sense of depth. Blue-eyed grass maybe several days in some places. One thimble-berry blossom done — probably several days. There are now those large swarms of black-winged millers (?) a half-inch long, with two long streamers ahead, fluttering three to six inches over the water; not long, methinks; also other insects. I see a yellow-spotted tortoise twenty rods from river, and a painted one four rods from it which has just made a hole for her eggs. Two catbirds’ nests in the thickest part of the thicket on the edge of Wheeler’s meadow near Island. One done laying (I learn after); four eggs, green, — much darker green than the robin’s and more slender in proportion. This is loosely placed in the forks of a broad alternate or silky cornel bush, about five feet from the ground, and is composed of dead twigs and a little stubble, then grape- vine bark, and is lined with dark root-fibres. Another, eight rods beyond, rests still more loosely on a Vibur- num dentatum and birch; has some dry leaves with the twigs, and one egg, — about six feet high. The bird hops within five feet.' The white maple keys are about half fallen. It is remarkable that this happens at the time the emperor moth (cecropia) comes out. Carea crinita (?), a few days, along bank of Assabet. Whiteweed, Merrick’s pasture shore, these two or three days. The Salix cordata (which apparently blossomed some days after the S. sericea) is very common on Prichard’s shore and also Whiting’s. Also at the last place is a small shrub, —a little of it, — perhaps S. lucida, which apparently blossomed about same time [as], or a day or two after, the sericea.

Rain. In afternoon — mizzling weather—to Abel Hos- mer Woods. Cistus, apparently yesterday, open. A yellowbird’s nest on a willow bough against a twig, ten feet high, four eggs. JI have heard no musical gurgle-ee from blackbirds for a fortnight. ‘They are now busy breeding.

P. M.— Goose Pond. High blueberry. A crow two thirds grown tied up for a scarecrow. A tanager’s (?) nest in the top- most forks of a pitch pine about fifteen feet high, by Thrush Alley; the nest very slight, apparently of pine- needles, twigs, etc.; can see through it; bird on. In that pitch pine wood see two rabbit forms (? ), very snug and well-roofed retreats formed by the dead pine-needles falling about the base of the trees, where they are upheld on the dead stubs from the butt at from six inches to a foot from the ground, as if the carpet [of the] forest floor were puffed up there. Gnawed acorn-shells in them. ‘Two Fringilla pusilla nests in my old potato-field, at the foot of little white pines each; made of dried grass lined with hair, snug in the sod. Four eggs to each; one lot nearly hatched; with reddish- brown spots, especially toward larger end, but a light opening quite at that end; smaller, slenderer, and less spotted than the song sparrow’s. The bird is ash side- head, ferruginous above, mahogany bill and legs, two whitish bars. Eggs do not agree with account? Nuttall says this bird’s eggs are so thick with ferruginous as to appear almost wholly of that color! A jay’s nest with three young half fledged in a white pine, six feet high (in it), by the Ingraham cellar, made of coarse sticks. Hear, I am pretty sure, a rose-breasted gros- beak sing. See apparently a summer duck in Goose Pond. C. says he saw two other dark ducks here yes- terday. A great many devil’s-needles in woods within a day or two. G. Brooks told me on June Ist that a few evenings before he saw as many as a thousand chimney swallows pour down into Goodnow’s chimney. A catbird’s nest on the peninsula of Goose Pond — four eggs — in a blueberry bush, four feet from ground, close to water; as usual of sticks, dry leaves, and bark lined with roots. What was that little nest on the ridge near by, made of fine grass lined with a few hairs and containing five small eggs (two hatched the 11th), nearly as broad as long, yet pointed, white with fine dull-brown spots especially on the large end —nearly hatched? The nest in the dry grass under a shrub, remarkably con- cealed.' Found in this walk, of nests, one tanager, two bay- wing, one blue jay, one catbird, and the last named.

P. M.—To Wheeler’s azalea swamp, across meadow. Early primrose done, say two days. An orchis, prob- ably yellowish, will be common in Wheeler’s meadow.’ Sidesaddle, apparently a day or two; petals hang down. A song sparrow’s nest low in Wheeler’s meadow, with five eggs, made of grass lined with hair. Rhus Towico- dendron on Island Rock. The nest probably of the small pewee — looking from the ground like a yellowbird’s, showing reddish wool of ferns — against a white birch, on a small twig, eighteen feet from ground. Four litile eggs, all pale cream-color before blowing, white after — fresh. A yellowbird’s nest eight feet from ground in crotch of a very slender maple. A chip-bird’s in a white thorn on the Hill; one egg. A catbird’s nest, three eggs, in a high blueberry, four feet from ground, with rather more dry leaves than usual, above Assabet Spring. Lambkill out. Catbird’s nest, one egg, on a blueberry bush, three feet from ground, of (as usual) sticks, leaves, bark, roots. Another near same (also in V. Muhlenbergii Swamp) on a bent white birch and andromeda, eighteen inches from ground; three eggs; stubble of weeds mainly instead of twigs, otherwise as usual. A chewink’s nest sunk in ground under a bank covered with ferns, dead and green, and huckleberry bushes; composed of dry leaves, then grass stubble, and lined with a very few slender, reddish moss stems; four eggs, rather fresh; merely enough moss stems to indicate its choice. Fever-root, perhaps several days. See very few hawks for several weeks. Found to-day, of nests, one song sparrow, one small pewee (?), one yellowbird, one chip-bird, three cat- birds, one chewink, one robin (the last on a black wil- low, two feet from ground, one egg). I think I have hardly heard a bobolink for a week or ten days.

P. M. — To owl’s nest. A remarkably strong wind from the southwest all day, racking the trees very much and filling the air with dust. I do not remember such violent and incessant gusts at this season. Many eggs, if not young, must have been shaken out of birds’ nests, for I hear of some fallen. It is almost impossible to hear birds — or to keep your hat on. The waves are like those of March. : That common grass,’ which was in blossom a fort- night since, and still on our bank, began a week ago to turn white here and there, killed by worms. Vero- nica scutellata, apparently a day or two. Iris versi- color, also a day or two. A red maple leaf with those crimson spots. Clintonia, apparently four or five days (not out at Hubbard’s Close the 4th). A catbird’s nest of usual construction, one egg, two feet high on a swamp-pink; an old nest of same near by on same. Some Viola cucullata are now nine inches high, and leaves nearly two inches wide. Archangelica stamini- ferous umbellets, say yesterday, but some, apparently only pistilliferous ones, look some days at least older; seed-vessel pretty large. Oven-bird’s nest with four eggs two thirds hatched, under dry leaves, composed of pine-needles and dry leaves and a hair or two for lining, about six feet south- west of a white oak which is six rods southwest of the hawk pine. The young owls are gone. The Kalmia glauca is done before the lambkill is begun here; ap- parently was done some days ago. A very few rhodoras linger. Nest of a kingbird or wood pewee ' on a white [sic] spruce in the Holden Swamp, about fifteen feet high, on a small branch near the top, of a few twigs and pine-needles, and an abundance of usnea mainly com- posing and lining and overflowing from it, very open beneath and carelessly built, with a small concavity; with three eggs pretty fresh, but apparently all told, cream-color before blowing, with a circle of brown spots about larger end. The female (?) looked darker beneath than a kingbird and uttered that clear plain- tive till tilt, like a robin somewhat, sitting on a spruce. C. finds an egg to-day, somewhat like a song spar- row’s, but a little longer and slenderer, or with less difference between the ends in form, and more finely and regularly spotted all over with pale brown. It was in a pensile nest of grape-vine bark, on the low branch of a maple. Probably a cowbird’s; fresh-laid. He has found in nests of grass in thick bushes near river what he thought red-wing’s eggs,” but they are pale-blue with large black blotches — one with a very ? Probably of Muscicapa Coopert or pe-pe, disc[overed] by Nut- tall (?). Vide May 15. large black spot on one side. Can they be bobolinks? or what?! My partridge still sits on seven eggs. The black spruce which I plucked on the 2d ex- panded a loose, rather light brown cone on the 3th, say. Can that be the pistillate flower? The white spruce cones are now a rich dark purple, more than a half- inch long. Nuttall thus describes the Muscicapa Coopert, olive- sided flycatcher, or pe-pe: — “Spec. CHaract. — Dusky brown; head darker, without discolored spot; sides olive grey; lateral space beneath the wing white; lower mandible purplish horn color; tail nearly even and extending but little beyond the closed wings.” No white on tail; secondaries and coverts edged with whitish; “rictus bright yellow, as well as the in- side of the mouth and tongue.” “Chin white.” “Sides dusky olive, a broad line down the middle of the breast, with the abdomen and rump yellowish white; a broad- ish white space on the side, beneath the wing towards the back.” “This species, though of the size of the King-bird, is nearly related to the Wood Pewee, yet perfectly distinct.”