1892.
Oct. 19
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord.- Cloudy with light showers in P.M. after which
the sky cleared the sun setting in a cloudless sky. Warm,
with steady, damp S. W. wind.
  Off at 8 A.M. driving to the "Packer lot" where I met
Melvin. We beat first the mixed pines & birches near
the cross roads seeing nothing but a Connecticut Warbler
which I shot, then crossed the road to a peaty flat
covered with alders & birches less than six feet high where
Melvin's dog found & pointed two Woodcock one of which
I killed. In the "Woodcock hole" piece beyond we started
four Partridges. M.[Melvin] killed one which I drove out past
him over one open meadow and another fell to our
two shots fired simultaneously while we missed good
shots at the other two. Melvin's and Hadley's runs
proved blanks but in some birches near the Parker lot
we found a Woodcock which I killed
  After lunch we drove to the Carlisle graveyard
& beat that ground carefully starting five Partridges,
one of which M.[Melvin] bagged, but no Woodcock.
  We finished the day at the haunted house cover
where I flushed two Woodcock killing one & missing
the other.
  Two covers where we left Woodcock yesterday held
no birds to-day and two in which there were none
yesterday [delete]proved[/delete] contained one or two this morning.
This shows that there was a flight both from & into
these covers last night despite the high temperature
(48° minimum, fide Melvin).
[margin]Woodcock[/margin]
  Melvin's dog worked beautifully & made many points.
Poor old "Don" seems to have "lost his nose" and
to-day did not fairly point a single bird.