1892.
Oct. 25
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord. Clear, the air sharp & frosty in the early morning
& at evening, the middle of the day warm with gentle
W[est] wind. Water froze last night. A neighbor calls it the
coldest night thus far but gives no proofs. It was certainly
the coldest night for the past week or more.
  This fact, coupled with the sudden appearance this morning
of multitudes of Tree Sparrows and a great increase in the
number of Juncos & Fox Sparrows, led me to anticipate a
heavy flight of Woodcock but I started only four, one in
Woodcock Hole, one Farrar's birches, one among huckleberry
bushes on the edge of an orchard above Farrar's birches,
and one near the locusts in the Carlisle Graveyard cover.
I hunted over all the ground covered yesterday except that
near Bateman's Pond and killed 2 Woodcock & 2 Quail.
The latter I found quite by accident in a sunny opening
on Farrar's hill. They rose literally under my feet & I got
one at the first rise and another one a point in the
woods into which they flew. They acted badly & like both
of the other two bevies which I have seen this season ran
a great deal and rose wild often 40 yards or more ahead
of my dog. This leads me to suspect that all these
bevies were the progeny of some of the southern birds
which have been introduced in such numbers within the
past few years.
[margin]Heavy flight of Sparrows[/margin]
  I started four Partridges & had three good shots, one at
a bird on the ground, but missed them all.
  In an orchard at the base of Farrar's hill with Robins
& Rusty Grackles were eight or ten Browed Grackles the
first I have seen this autumn, I shot a fine male.
  Saw a Woodcock on the ground today &  one yesterday
both squatting ahead of my dog's point.
Hounds running a Fox all day making the woods sing.