1890                                                                                              
Sept. 23.    
Lake Umbagog, Maine.
  A cold blustering day with high N. wind and great black clouds,
some of which sent down brisk showers of rain alternating with ^Woodcock Shooting.
brief intervals of sunshine. Staring at 8,30 A.M. Henshaw and I
drove Errol where we put up the horse in a barn on the edge of
the river and beat the alder thickets on the S. side. They proved
unsuitable for Woodcock the bushes being too tall and dense and
the ground beneath and especially in the openings being choked with
a rank and matted growth of asters, golden rods and long grass,
which rose to the height of our shoulders.
  Starting nothing here we harnessed the horse and returned about
two miles towards Lakeside, finaaly stopping at a place where there
was a large tract of pasture spruces by the roadside.
  In these Don found and pointed a Woodcock which I killed by a
difficult snap shot. The bird among rocks and rolled down
into a hole where I just managed to reach its bill with my finger
tips.
  We then drove another mile homeward and stabled the horse in a 
barn belonging to Mr. Ferrin who told us that Woodcock'-'"Massachu'-'
setts Woodcock"'-' he called them were very numerous all around his
opening. Climbing the hillside behind his house we had no sooner
reached the edge of the poplar &[and] birch woods when Don pointed and
two birds rose together and went off unshot at. In this cover we
started four one of which I shot, H. missing two shots. We then
went down into a deep narrow valleybwhere I killed a Ruffed Grouse
by an exceedingly difficult snap shot. Returning to the hillside
we started*[startled] a Woodcock which I shot at &[and] probably killed as we found
a great many feathers but no bird.