July 26 - 1874 Sunday July 26 Clear and warm with a good breeze. Spent most of the day about the house taking a stroll up into the pasture side back of Abbotts on O-No with me to try for a shot at a woodchuck but saw none. Shot a thrush at about 50 yds, Cardinals Inain, Lon. albidotis, I. Pallasin, Cant. bonalis & a few others and Hill singing. Shot a Pir. Carduelis (Bird pl.) July 27 Cloudy. Commenced raining at about 10 A.M. and continued till evening. Started after Bird for a trip to the River with Sargent but the rainstorm turned us back before we had got out of sight of the house. Passed most of the day getting on the Niagara and shot 2 2nd pl. His humphous & a Picus pubescens with the whole top of head red, Leuman Sargent informs me that he once took a pair of young [illegible] leucophle from the nest & kept them alive until the third year they changed but little - then the head & tail both showed a little white; the fourth year both assumed their perfect plumage.