118 Sept. 1873 Wilton, Maine. 1873 Sept. 2. down & I shot four, two flying, B. shot a wood duck & came back. Hearing the whistle of the steamboat we dragged out my skiff; I stationed myself on the run while he went back to the pond. Then I shot two ower ducks & white gulls & a dst. blue heron all flying & missed another duck after wrapping the first barrel at him. The steam now came along & after another delay on the bar, we reached home by 10. P.M. Sept. 3. Clear & fine day. Barton left for "the street" this morning. After dinner started up C. run in the skiff & shot 8 bids, 2 D. cortana & Pens bnde. [illegible] 2 D. striata; the latter an evidently increasing in numbers. Why whitewins are all gone as on the swallows which seemed to have almost simultaneously, Ch. perpetua I have not seen for several days, and Chey. prinus with their young have dwindling & almost entirely disappeared. C. tristis is also I think leaving us. The Beeches are turning yellow, the furs are withering and everything both faunal & floral, begins to show signs of the approaching changes in nature. Sept. 4. Cloudy & rainy, mist & fog forenoon thundered the birds shot yesterday. In P.M. went down to the river and took two half-pounds. 15 Clear with showers. In A.M. shot a Ch. tristis with my rifle & took two Ml. [illegible] most. Banged about the house in P.M. Dan G. French arrived in the evening.