288 MASS. (Middlesex Co.): 1876. (April 5) Nyctarcia Gardini Carduo Migratorius flocking Practising and have settled down on The mammoth trill, Saw large flocks of blackbirds all farm species. Shot 4 April's a bluebird and a Carduo mis. The bluebird had a number of yellowish tumors growing all over the upper mandible and an or an eyelid of either eye. Then had in some places quite eaten away the horny covering of the bill. The bird was in otherwise good condition and had the testicles highly enlarged. The robins now collected in flocks of 100 or more as when they first appeared a month since. Perhaps those that first came won our local birds after off. Near the Mt. Auburn line I started a night heron from a snow laden apple tree and when I came back that way later it flew out again from a spruce near the same place & I fired a long shot at it without success. It was in brown plumage. Saw several Cesthias and a few tree sparrows but the latter are unusually scarce this spring. By noon the snow had melted off all the trees and the scene was entirely changed. Even the birds seem to have disappeared as I saw not half so many on my walk back, though even at that time a few fat sparrows were still singing.