Thoreau writes in his journal:
Ed. Emerson shows me the egg of a bittern (Ardea minor) form a nest in the midst of the Great Meadows, which four boys found, scaring up the bird, last Monday, the 24th . . .
Boston, Mass. Thoreau checks out A history of British reptiles by Thomas Bell from the Boston Society of Natural History (Emerson Society Quarterly, no. 24 (March 1952):26).
Cambridge, Mass. Thoreau checks out Description de la Louisane, nouvellement decouverte au sud’oüest de la Nouvelle France par ordre du roy by Louis Hennepin, Jesuit Relations for 1669-1670, Jesuit Relations for 1670-1671, and Jesuit Relations for 1671-1672 from Harvard College Library (Emerson the Essayist, 2:198).
