March 1874 153 1874 March 26 Middlery County, Mass. - Belmont. Cloudy & warm with moist S. wind. After breakfast drove up to the Belmont meadows taking shot & beat for Snipe but found the ground frozen mudless and no signs of birds a few Pigeons may be here but the time is not yet. Afterwards drove up to the Warren run & tried to show Shot a woodcock but could find no traces of any; he however drew on the track of a grouse I going too fast ran in or her! Saw only two birds a G. l. pecoris, three of which I saw for the first time, and a Passer domesticus which I was much surprised at detecting among a prodigious throng of Sparrows on the North p. turnpike; it was a young bird in exceedingly shabby and worn plumage, and attracted my attention by its peculiar note & manner of flight. Then was I think a general arrival of Sc. ferrugineus: I saw them wing when at least thirty in all. Saw for first time, Car. purpureus (S. ranging in midstream) M. pecoris (vö 20 the former already settling himself up & forging his addresses to the latter) and Sturmelia magna (two whistling on the B. meadow). The migration of the early-coming Sparrows is now at its height: busy bushy hollow and hedgerow is swarming with M. subulata & S. monticola & Chubbers are in abundance in the fallow fields & overgrown thickets. Heard also a Par. thace singing finely & Mr. Halletto fis, this morning. Saw As. phoeniceus