1894.
Oct. 11 to
Nov. 21
(No. 16)
Concord, Massachusetts.
Resumé of Field Observations.
killed nine in one day about November 25th and after
this date rarely failed to start from thirty to forty
in a day's tramp. He, as well as all the other
sportsmen whom I have seen, report that the birds
have been unusually shy this year.
  In the Ball's Hill region I have noticed no change
in the number of Partridges as the autumn advanced.
Late in August I started an old hen there with four
nearly grown young and through October and November
there were, as nearly as I could ascertain, about
five birds constantly living in these woods. They
ranged from Holden's Hill to the Mason field. Although
it is practically certain that they were not once shot
at (at least on my land) this season they were so
shy that I rarely succeeded in getting within gun shot.
Indeed they would often rise one hundred yards or
more ahead of me even in dense cover.
  A few Great Blue Herons were seen along the river, the
last Nov. 11th. The only one which I met with started
from the pines on Bensen's Hill Oct. 19th and
flew off over Davis's swamp.
  Woodcock have been exceedingly scarce. Indeed there
has been no well-marked flight and the greatest
number started in a single day by any one of my
acquaintances was four. On November 13 I flushed a
very large bird near Ball's Hill. The ground had been
covered with five or six inches of snow for over a week but
this bird had found a place on the edge of a belt of oak