25 April 1859 – 1 May 1859

P. M.— To Kalmia Swamp. First notice martins. I got to-day and yesterday the first decided impres- sion of greenness beginning to prevail, summer-like. It struck me as I was going past some opening and by chance looked up some valley or glade, — green- ness just beginning to prevail over the brown or tawny. It is a sudden impression of greater genialness in the air, when this greenness first makes an impression on you at some turn, from blades of grass decidedly green, though thin, in the sun and the still, warm air, on some warm orchard-slope perhaps. It reminds you of the time, not far off, when you will see the dark shadows of the trees there and buttercups spotting the grass. Even the grass begins to wave, in the 19th-of-April fashion. When the wind is still cool elsewhere, I glance up some warm southern slope, sunny and still, where the thinly scattered blades of green grass, lately sprung, already perchance begin to wave, and I am suddenly advertised that a new season has arrived. ‘This is the beginning of that season which, methinks, culminates with the buttercup and wild pink and Viola pedata. It begins when the first toad is heard. Methinks I hear through the wind to-day — and it was the same yesterday —a very faint, low ringing of toads, as if distant and just begun. It is an indis- tinct undertone, and I am far from sure that I hear anything. It may be all imagination. I see the meadow-sweet, thimble-berry (even in a swamp), high blackberry, and (on a dry rock in the woods in a sunny place) some Vacciniwm Pennsylva- nicum leafing (even the last) apparently two or three 1859) | NOTES OF THE SEASON 163 days. Fern scrolls are eight inches high, — beyond Hubbard Bridge on the north bank of road. A mosquito endeavors to sting me. Ranunculus repens at Corner Spring apparently yesterday; five of them out now. Thus early now be- cause exposed to light. The Vzola blanda are numer- ously open there, say two days at least. Also bluets and potentilla are first noticed by me, and V. sagittata. The more yellowish red maples of this afternoon are one, barked, northeast corner Hubbard’s Draczena Grove, the easternmost tree of the row south of Hub- bard’s Grove, the larger about ten rods this side Hub- bard Bridge, south side. The two at this end of bridge are quite red. 7 I hear still the what what what of a nuthatch, and, directly after, its ordinary winter note of gnah gnah, quite distinct. I think the former is its spring note or breeding-note. E. Bartlett has found a crow’s nest with four eggs a little developed in a tall white pine in the grove east of Beck Stow’s. The snipe have hovered commonly this spring an hour or two before sunset and also in the morning. I can see them flying very high over the Mill-Dam, and they appear to make that sound when descending, — one quite by himself. Toads have been observed or disturbed in gardens for a week. One saw a striped snake the 3d of April on a warm railroad sand-bank, —a similar place to the others I heard of. Young Stewart tells me that he saw last year a pout’s nest at Walden in the pond-hole by the big pond. The spawn lay on the mud quite open and uncovered, and the old fish was tending it. A few days after, he saw that it was hatched and little pouts were swimming about.

Start for Lynn. , Rice says that he saw a large mud turtle in the river about three weeks ago, and has seen two or three more since. Thinks they come out about the first of April. He saw a woodchuck the 17th; says he heard a toad on the 23d. P. M. — Walked with C. M. Tracy in the rain! in the western part of Lynn, near Dungeon Rock. Crossed a stream of stones ten or more rods wide, reaching from top of Pine Hill to Salem. Saw many discolor- like willows on hills (rocky hills), but apparently pass- ing into S. humilis; yet no eriocephala, or distinct form from discolor. Also one S. rostrata. Tracy thought his neighborhood’s a depauperated flora, being on the porphyry. Is a marked difference between the vege- tation of the porphyry and the sienite. Got the Cerastiwm arvense from T.’s garden; said to be abundant on Nahant and to have flowers big as a five-cent-piece; very like a dianthus, — the leaf.. Also got the Nasturtium officinale, or common brook cress, from Lynn, and set it in Depot Field Brook. Neither of these in bloom. His variety Virginica of Cardamine grows on dry ground.

Walk along Swampscott Beach from Red Rock northeast. The beach is strewn with beautifully colored purple and whitish algze just left by the tide. Hear and see the seringo in fields next the shore. No noticeable yellow shoulder, pure whitish beneath, dashed throat and a dark-brown line of dashes along the sides of the body.' Struck inland and passed over the west end of High Rock, through the cemetery, and over Pine Hill, where I heard a strange warbler, methought, a dark-colored, perhaps reddish-headed bird. ‘Thence through East Saugus and Saugus to Cliftondale, I think in the south- ern part of Saugus. The little brown snake with the light line along the back just killed in the road. Saw at the Aquarium in Bromfield Street apparently brook minnows with the longitudinal dark lines bor- dered with light. A little pout incessantly nibbles at the dorsal fin of the common perch, also at apparently the mucus on its back. See the sea-raven. Toads ring and, no doubt, in Concord also.

8.30 a. mM. — Row to Carlisle Bridge with Blake and Brown. See black ducks and sheldrakes still. The first myr- tle-bird that I have noticed. A small hawk, perhaps ! Ours examined the 30th is apparently or perhaps a little smaller and less distinctly whitish beneath and with a less distinct dark line on the sides, but breast equally dashed with brown. Did not see the yellow shoulder, and the head was a little less yellow. Also note of ours apparently more feeble, first part like a watch-spring, last more ringing and clear in both birds.

7 a. M. — To Walden, and set one hun- dred larch trees from England, all two years from seed, about nine inches high, just begun to leaf. See and hear a black and white creeper. First observe the dandelion well out in R. W. E.’s yard; also anemone at Sassafras Shore. Interrupted fern scrolls there, four to five inches high. Those red maples are reddest in which the fertile flowers prevail.

P. M. — Sail to Holden Swamp. The warmest afternoon yet. Sat in sun without fire this forenoon. The wind has at length been easterly without rain following. Fishes, especially pickerel, lie up in greater numbers, though Haynes thinks the water is still too cold for them. See a bream. A small willow some ten rods north of stone bridge, east side, bloomed yesterday. Salix alba \eafing, or stipules a quarter of an inch wide; probably began a day or two [ago]. Luzula campes- tris is almost out at Clamshell. Its now low purplish and silky-haired leaves are the blooming of moist ground and early meadow-edges. See. two or three strawberry flowers at Clamshell. The 27th and to-day are weather for a half-thick single coat. This old name is still useful. There is scarcely a puff of wind till I get to Clamshell; then it rises and comes from the northwest instead of north- east and blows quite hard and fresher. See a stake- driver.

Hear the ruby-crowned wren. We accuse savages of worshipping only the bad spirit, or devil, though they may distinguish both a good and a bad; but they regard only that one which they fear and worship the devil only. We too are sav- ages in this, doing precisely the same thing. This oc- curred to me yesterday as I sat in the woods admiring the beauty of the blue butterfly. We are not chiefly interested in birds and insects, for example, as they are ornamental to the earth and cheering to man, but we spare the lives of the former only on condition that they eat more grubs than they do cherries, and the only account of the insects which the State encourages is of the “Insects Injurtous to Vegetation.” We too admit both a good and a bad spirit, but we worship chiefly the bad spirit, whom we fear. We do not think first of the good but of the harm things will do us. The catechism says that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, which of course is applicable mainly to God as seen in his works. Yet the only account of its beautiful insects — butterflies, etc. — which God has made and set before us which the State ever thinks of spending any money on is the account of those which are injurious to vegetation! This is the way we glorify God and enjoy him forever. Come out here and behold a thousand painted butter- flies and other beautiful insects which people the air, then go to the libraries and see what kind of prayer and glorification of God is there recorded. Massachu- setts has published her report on “Insects Injurious to Vegetation,” and our neighbor the “Noxious In- sects of New York.” We have attended to the evil and said nothing about the good. This is looking a gift horse in the mouth with a vengeance. Children are attracted by the beauty of butterflies, but their parents and legislators deem it an idle pursuit. The parents remind me of the devil, but the children of God. Though God may have pronounced his work good, we ask, “Is it not poisonous? ” Science is inhuman. Things seen with a microscope begin to be insignificant. So described, they are as monstrous as if they should be magnified a thousand diameters. Suppose I should see and describe men and houses and trees and birds as if they were a thousand times larger than they are! With our prying instruments we disturb the balance and harmony of nature. P. M. — To Second Division. Very warm. Looking from Clamshell over Hos- mer’s meadow, about half covered with water, see hundreds of turtles, chiefly picta, now first lying out in numbers on the brown pieces of meadow which rise above the water. You see their black backs shine on these hummocks left by the ice, fifty to eighty rods off. They would rapidly tumble off if you went much nearer. This heat and stillness draws them up. It is remark- able how surely they are advertised of the first warm and still days, and in an hour or two are sure to spread themselves over the hummocks. There is to-day a gen- eral resurrection of them, and there they bask in the sun. It is their sabbath. At this distance, if you are on the lookout, especially with a glass, you can dis- cover what numbers of them there are, but they are shy and will drop into the water on a near approach. All up and down our river meadows their backs are shining in the sun to-day. It is a turtle day. As we sat on the steep hillside south of Nut Meadow Brook Crossing, we noticed a remarkable whirlwind on a small scale, which carried up the oak leaves from that Island copse in the meadow. The oak leaves now hang thinly and are very dry and light, and these small whirlwinds, which seem to be occasioned by the sud- den hot and calm weather (like whirlpools or dimples in a smooth stream), wrench them off, and up they go, somewhat spirally, in countless flocks like birds, with a rustling sound; and higher and higher into the clear blue deeps they rise above our heads, till they are fairly lost to sight, looking, when last seen, mere light specks against the blue, like stars by day, in fact. I could dis- tinguish some, I have no doubt, five or six hundred feet high at least, but if I looked aside a moment they were lost. The largest oak leaves looked not bigger than a five-cent-piece. ‘These were drifting eastward, — to descend where? Methought that, instead of de- ‘caying on the earth or being consumed by fire, these were being translated and would soon be taken in at the windows of heaven. I had never observed this phe- nomenon so remarkable. The flight of the leaves. ‘This was quite local, and it was comparatively still where we sat a few rods on one side. Thousands went up together in a rustling flock. Many of the last oak leaves hang thus ready to go up. I noticed two or more similar whirlwinds in the woods elsewhere this afternoon. One took up small twigs and clusters of leaves from the ground, matted to- gether. I could easily see where it ran along with its nose (or point of its tunnel) close to the ground, stir- ring up the leaves as it travelled, like the snout of some hunting or rooting animal. See and hear chewink. See a little snake on the dry twigs and chips in the sun, near the arbutus, uniformly brown (or reddish- brown) above except a yellowish ring on the occiput, the head also lighter than the body; beneath vermilion, with apparently a row of light dots along each side. It is apparently Coluber amenus (?), except that it has the yellowish ring. Tuzula campestris. Also the Oryzopsis Canadensis by the Major Heywood path-side, say a day, or April 30th, six inches high or more, with fine bristle-like leaves. See a thrasher. What is that rush at Second Division? It now forms a dense and very conspicuous mass some four rods long and one foot high. The top for three inches is red, and the impression at a little distance is like that made by sorrel. Certainly no plant of this charac- ter exhibits such a growth now, 2. e. in the mass. It surprises you to see it, carries your thoughts on to June. The climbing fern is persistent, 2. e. retains its green- ness still, though now partly brown and withered.