Concord, Massachusetts.
1891.
Oct. 31
(No 3)
Concord & Carlisle.  second. Both flew out of sight
and although I searched long and closely for them
I did not succeed in finding either of them
again. While I was looking for them I met a
Concord sportsman by the name of Barrett. He tells
me that he killed twelves Woodcock in one day about
two weeks ago, finding most of them on Farrar's hill.
[margin]Woodcock shooting.[/margin]
  Returning to the wagon I lunched and then
drove to Farrar's, beating the hill rather superficially
and finding nothing. In the hope of bettering my
remarkably ill luck I next drove to the Carlisle
graveyard. As I was walking along the edge of the 
swamp near the row of locust trees and small hen
Partridge rose among some oaks. I got barely a glympse
of her through the dense foliage but fired a snap
shot and had the satisfaction of hearing her first
plump on the ground and then scatter the dry leaves
in her death-flurry. She was shot directly through
the head and was apparently an old bird.
  For nearly an hour after this I hunted industrially
without seeing any game although Don found
scent in several places. I[n] one place, a small isolated
cluster of birches near the locusts, he made two
or three rather stiff points and in the intervals
between them roaded a ground scent with great
eagerness. At first I felt sure that he was
following a running Woodcock but the scent
did not lead out of the covers and after we
had both tramped over nearly every yard of the
ground which was remarkably open underneath
I gave it up and went on. After trying all