1891.
Nov. 5
Concord, Massachusetts.
Concord & Acton. - Cloudy and chilly. The night was
rather cold (thm. 28 [degrees[ at sunrise) and the temperature
did not rise sufficiently during the day to
thaw the ground or small ponds which were 
skimmed over on the surfaced.
[margin]Woodcock shooting[/margin]
  George brought the horse at 8.30 and I started
off, taking gun, dog and lunch. We stopped first
near Bateman's Pond and I beat the little knoll
where I started three Woodcock last Saturday. There
were none then to-day and I saw no fresh
chalkings.
  I next tried Wadleigh's run. It proved to contain
three Woodcock. I started the first in a narrow
strip of scanty birches in a pasture outside the
main cover and killed it easily. The second rose
from some hazel bushes among the pitch pines giving
me an open and very easy shot which I missed, quite
unaccountably fro the gun seemed to be exactly on
the bird. The third was in the very middle of
the densest part of the hazel & alder thickets.
The dog roaded it for some distance & I finally saw
it walking calmly ahead of him. As it rose I
fired but missed having a very difficult shot.
I afterwards put it up three times firing another
snot but again missing. The last time it
rose fully sixty yards in advance of me & 
I failed to mark or find it again.
  After lunching at the deserted house I
went to the "Woodcock hole". Don leaped
over the wall and at once pointed but so
listlessly that I supposed he had taken