Journals, 1871-1919 (inclusive)
Page 121
Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Contributed by Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library. | www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
58 UPTON, MAINE 1873 September 21 - 22 skiff. I found that stream much swollen by the late rains, flowing nearly bank full with a rapid current. Shot six birds the best a Parus hudsonius in full fall plumage. L. T. Brown came in this evening from Bethel and Barstow started up the Megalloway this morning with F. S. Flint. The steamboat was "hung up" at the mouth of the Cambridge River while attempting to run in in the dark this evening. September 21. (Sunday) Clear and cold. Spent the day about the house, in P.M. skinning the birds shot yesterday. Fished an hour or so in the river with my new rod and caught two small fish. The sunset was extremely fine this evening, the changing forests being fairly flooded with brilliant light. September 22. Clear and warmer than past few days. After break- fast took a trip up Cambridge river in the skiff and shot six birds, two Parus hudsonius etc. This bird (P.hudsonius) has not a single note like P.atricapillus: the note described under August 11 is frequently preluded by the sharp che-chit or chee- chit-chit, and the single chirp corresponding to that of P.atri- capillus is much louder and more petulant and not in any way to be confounded with it. These three sets of notes are the only ones I have heard to be sure of, though the bird will sometimes give a sputtering combination of them all in rapid succession. It is on the whole much more silent and less cheery than P.a tri., keeps almost exclusively in the firs and spruces very high up, has a heavier and more clumsy flight, and although often seen near, does not as a rule associate with that species. Heard