A turn down the river.

November 27.  

P. M. — Take a turn down the river. 

A painted tortoise sinking to the bottom, and apparently tree sparrows along the shore.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, November 27, 1856

Take a turn down the river.   See December 2, 1856 ("Got in my boat, which before I had got out and turned up on the bank.”)

A painted tortoise . See   November 1, 1855.("I see no painted tortoises out, and I think it is about a fortnight since I saw any. ");   November 7, 1855 ("I see a painted tortoise swimming under water, and to my surprise another afterward out on a willow trunk . . .”)  November 9, 1855 ("See a painted tortoise and a wood tortoise in different places out on the bank still!”); November 14, 1855 ("A clear, bright, warm afternoon. A painted tortoise swimming under water and a wood tortoise out on the bank.”); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,the Painted Turtle (Emys picta)

Tree sparrows. See November 7, 1855 ("Birds are pretty rare now. I hear a few tree sparrows in one place on the trees and bushes near the river, — a clear, chinking chirp and a half-strain...”);  November 20, 1857 (“The hardy tree sparrow has taken the place of the chipping and song sparrow, so much like the former that most do not know it is another. His faint lisping chip will keep our spirits up till another spring.”); and  J..J. Audubon (" It reaches Massachusetts at the approach of winter, and is more frequent in the maritime districts of that State than in the interior, where, however, it is met with in considerable numbers. In the beginning of October, if the weather be cold, the Tree Sparrow is seen among the magnificent elm trees that ornament the beautiful city of Boston and its neighbouring villages; and, like the hardy, industrious, and enterprising people among whom it seems to spend the severe season by choice, it makes strenuous efforts to supply itself with the means of subsistence . . . According to Dr. T. M. BREWER, this is the most common Sparrow found near Boston during the winter, inhabiting in large flocks the low bushes and grass in marshy, sheltered situations, much of the time very quiet and inactive.”)