21 February 1853 – 27 February 1853

Frank Brown has killed, within a day or two, a tree sparrow (Emberiza Canadensis, Canada bunting, or tree sparrow, of Audubon’s Synopsis). I think this must be my bright-chestnut-fronted bird of the winter,’ though Peabody says it is distinguished by the spot on the breast, which reminds me of the larger, finch-like bird. A week or two ago I brought home a handsome pitch pine cone which had freshly fallen and was closed per- fectly tight. It was put into a table drawer. To-day I am agreeably surprised to find that it has there dried and opened with perfect regularity, fillng the drawer, and from a solid, narrow, and sharp cone, has become a broad, rounded, open one, — has, in fact, expanded with the regularity of a flower’s petals into a conical flower of rigid scales, and has shed a remarkable quantity of delicate-winged seeds. Each scale, which is very elaborately and perfectly constructed, is armed with a short spine, pointing downward, as if to protect its seed from squirrels and birds. That hard closed cone, which defied all violent attempts to open it, and could only be cut open with [szc], has thus yielded to the gentle persuasion of warmth and dryness. The expanding [of] the pine cones, that, too, is a season. Mr. Herbert is strenuous that I say “ruffed grouse” for “ partridge” and “ hare”’ for “rabbit.” He says of the snipe, “I am myself satisfied that the sound is produced by the fact that the bird, by some muscular action or other, turns the quill-feathers edgewise, as he drops plumb through the air; and that while in this position, during his accelerated descent, the vibration of the feathers and the passage of the air between them gives utterance to this wild humming sound.”