1892.
Oct. 21
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord.- Early morning cloudy, warm & damp with a light
shower at 9.30. Soon after this blue sky began to appear &
a roaring N. W. wind sprang up & lashed all day. The
evening was clear & not cold.
  Shooting all day with Melvin & Arthur Robbins.
We beat the covers near the graveyard & haunted house
and visited a good deal of ground N. of Carlisle
which I have never hunted before. Started six Woodcock,
seventeen Partridges, and a bevy of about nine Quail
the last in the graveyard cover very near where we
found the bevy last autumn. One bag was as follows:
Melvin 2 Woodcock; Robbins, 3 Quail & ½ Woodcock; W.B.
1 Quail & ½ Woodcock. Total 3 Woodcock, 4 Quail.
We all shot badly but I the worst of the three.
The dogs behaved well and Don worked nearly as
well as in his palmy days pointing two Woodcock and
several Partridges. He held his point on a Woodcock
for ten minutes or more while I was searching for
him & whistling. I finally found him standing
the bird among scrub oaks on a knoll. I fired three
times at this bird finally wounding it badly but
it got away. The Partridges were all very wild
& we had no fair chances at them. I saw
one run across the road as I was driving &
another flew from an apple tree, where it was
doubtless building, about sunset.
  The country was alive with sportsmen & we
heard guns frequently in every direction.
The oak leaves were falling in quantities to-day
& the high wind drove them across the openings like birds.