Concord, Massachusetts.
1891.
Oct. 22
(No 2)
Carlisle. - skimmed off close over the ground giving
me so poor a chance that I fired two more shots 
at it in vain. Meanwhile Melvin started the
other bird and missed it. Of course we both
felt somewhat disgusted at our ill luck and bad
shooting.
[margin]Woodcock shooting[/margin]
  Returning to the wagon we drove to Carlisle and
beyond to a point nearly a mile north of where
we ceased shooting last night. After stabling the 
horse and eating lunch in a barn we entered a
piece of cover which neither of us had visited
before but which had been described to us by
Arthur Robbins. It proved a fine looking ground
for Woodcock - a great  tract of young birches mingled
with alders and wild apple trees with numerous
openings. Melvin soon started a bird at which he
fired, missing. A little later his dog pointed another
and he called me over. I took a position outside
the cover and he drove the Woodcock out. I missed
with my first and kill it with my second
barrel firing through dense birch each time.
  We beat back through birch covers, too dense and
briary underneath to be good ground, to the
place where we saw so many Woodcock last
night. On the top of the hill among birches I
started and killed a Woodcock. Melvin put
up another lover down but failed to get a
shot and although we hunted long and closely
we did not succeed in finding the bird again.
  We then drove to Carlisle graveyard
and finished the day by hunting the