Concord, Massachusetts.
1891.
Oct. 23
(No. 2)
Carlisle & Acton.  flushed the bird a second time firing
both barrels but missing. The Woodcock rose
high in the air and whirled off over the trees.
We searched for it carefully but failed to find it
again. While following it Melvin started a
fresh bird and killed it. His dog afterwards
made a fine point on a sixth Woodcock and
he called me over and posted me outside the
birches, driving the bird out to me. IT appeared
nearly forty yards away and instantly turned
from me. I fired but got only a few feathers
the bird rising high in air and quickly
disappearing.
[margin]Woodcock shooting[/margin]
  We started nothing else on this hill except
a Rabbit, which Don pointed, and a shy Grouse,
which gave us no chance at a shot, but in
the extensive birch covers near Braybrooks I
killed another Woodcock, the seventh and last
seen to-day. It rose from beneath some birches
close to a stone wall and turning into an opening
was skimming off very swiftly close to the ground
when I fired. As this bird started fully 35 yards
from me I had to be very quick about it.
  Melvin and I agree that the Woodcock of the 
present day behave quite unlike those of 20 years
ago. They haunt dense covers, run much more
before a dog (often 50 to 100 yds before lying) and
on riding t op of the trees much less often, usually, in
fact, stealing among as quietly as possible or doubling
and twisting low over the ground like a
Snipe. Humphrey Buttrick also endorses this theory.
[margin]Change in the habits of Woodcock[/margin]