A yellow-spotted turtle.

March 23.

Surveying Mr. Gordon’s farm. 

See something stirring amid the dead leaves in the water at the bottom of a ditch, in two or three places, and presently see the back of a yellow-spotted turtle. 

Afterward a large flock of fox-colored sparrows flits by along an alder-row, uttering a faint chip like that of the tree sparrow.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 23, 1858

Something stirring amid the dead leaves in the water at the bottom of a ditch. See March 26, 1860 (“The yellow-spotted tortoise may be seen February 23, as in '57, or not till March 28, as in '55, — thirty-three days.”); See February 23, 1857 (“See two yellow-spotted tortoises in the ditch south of Trillium Wood. . . .I have seen signs of the spring.”);  March 10, 1853 ("I find a yellow-spotted tortoise (Emys guttata) in the brook.”); March 18, 1854 (" C. has already seen a yellow-spotted tortoise in a ditch.”);   ; March 28, 1852 (“ a yellow-spotted tortoise by the causeway side in the meadow near Hubbard's Bridge.”); March 28, 1855 (“A yellow-spotted tortoise in a still ditch, which has a little ice also. It at first glance reminds me of a bright freckled leaf, skunk-cabbage scape, perhaps. They are generally quite still at this season, or only slowly put their heads out (of their shells).”) See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau The Yellow-Spotted Turtle

A large flock of fox-colored sparrows. See March 23, 1853 ("The birds which are merely migrating or tarrying here for a season are especially gregarious now”); See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Fox-colored Sparrow.

See something stirring

amid the dead leaves at the 

bottom of a ditch.