The vowel sound in the bleat of a sheep.

October 25.

Rain in night. 

P. M. – By boat to Battle-Ground. 

A rainy day and easterly wind, - an easterly storm.

October 25, 2023

I see flying very high over the meadow, from the east, eleven large birds, leisurely circling a little by the way, surveying the bare meadow. I think they must be fish hawks. 

I am amused to see that Varro tells us that the Latin e represents the vowel sound in the bleat of a sheep (Bee). If he had said in any word pronounced by the Romans we should be not the wiser, but we do not doubt that sheep bleat to-day as they did then. 

The fresh clamshells opened by the musquash begin to be conspicuous.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, October 25, 1857

I think they must be fish hawks. See October 9, 1853 ("Did we not see a fish hawk? "); November 6, 1854 ("Was that a fish hawk I saw flying over the Assabet, or a goshawk? "); November 17, 1854 ( I think it must have been a fish hawk which I saw ); November 21, 1850 ("I saw Fair Haven Pond with its island, and meadow between the island and the shore, and a strip of perfectly still and smooth water in the lee of the island, and two hawks, fish hawks perhaps, sailing over it.") See also  A Book of Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Osprey (Fish Hawk)

The fresh clamshells opened by the musquash begin to be conspicuous. See October 25, 1855 ("The muskrats must now prepare for winter in earnest. I see many places where they have left clamshells recently. ") see also  A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Musquash

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