for any food or protection they give him, 

 but evidently from long association, as a 

 chnd loves certain un k empt corners of an 

 U pi an( j pasture above twenty other more 

 beautiful spots that one would expect him 

 to like better. Moreover, the scattered birds, 

 in some unknown way, seem to keep account 

 of the place, as if it were an inn, and so long 

 as they remain in the neighborhood will often 

 keep this one particular spot filled to its full 

 complement. 



Some three miles north of where I write 

 there is a certain small patch of tall open 

 woods that a few hunters have known and 

 tended for years, while others passed by care- 

 lessly, for it is the least likely looking spot 

 for game in the whole region. Yet if there is 

 but a single woodcock in all Fairfield County, 

 in these days of many hunters and few birds, 

 the chances are that he will be there; and 

 if you do not find one there on the first 

 morning after a promising spell of weather, 

 you may be almost certain that the flight is 

 not yet on, or has passed you by. Several 

 times after flushing a solitary woodcock in 



