Song of Paserella ilieca Nebels of Anferli October 285 MASS (Middlesex Co) 1876. Monday April 3 Cloudy with chill & wind. Got off rather late this morning taking a turn up over the Coolidge farm. Found cedar birds very numerous, as much so I think as they used to be in the good old times. Shot sixteen only four of which men was tipped. Of them one 5 1/2. Of the remaining one 3 1/4. Shot also a 3 1/2 Sicilia. Saw a large flock of fox sparrows and listened a long time to the glorious melody of the males some of which were performing almost incessantly though it was nearly noon. I saw no reason to change my previous high opinion of the merits of this bird as a songster & would place no bird above it that I have ever heard though they hummed through is certainly not a whit inferior. The conspicuous elements of the fox sparrow song are wildness and a superlatively richness of compass, while there is strongly contrastingly to fully satisfy the ear. A few other birds equal it perhaps in the first two particulars but none of them can be credited with an equal amount of power & length of utterance. The chief charm of the humming thrush is its quiet serenity & purity but with in that it for surpasses the fox sparrow, it falls below it in boldness of execution. The two songs are so unlike that it is perhaps useless to compare them at all! Each an masterpiece of their way. Genius an migrating now in full blast. Saw a single Skotterns a male. The cedar bird has commenced to attack the asparagus