Concord, Massachusetts.
1894
Oct. 11 to
Nov. 21
(No 17)
Resume of Field Observations
scrub bordering the river meadow when the sun had
melted the snow over a space of several square yards. No
doubt this was what had [delete]brought[/delete] attracted it to this spot for
only once before (last May) have I ever seen a Woodcock
in this immediate locality.
  On this same day two Woodcock were started by the
marketman, Davis, and on the 18th Albert Brown killed
a bird near Bateman's Pond.
  The meadows were much too dry for Snipe this autumn
and only a very few birds were seen. I heard of two
that were started at Goose Pond.
  At about 2 P.M. of October 17th as I was dining in the
cabin with some friends we heard the call of a Greater
Yellow-leg repeated several times in quick succession and
evidently very near. Rushing out I saw the bird coming
directly towards me from the opposite side of the river
flying low and, as it struck me, rather feebly. Greatly
to my surprise it plunged directly into the belt of
bushes (alders, cornels, willows, etc.) which borders the shore
in front and a little to the east of the cabin. I now for
the first time saw that it was pursued by a Duck Hawk
which must have been twenty or thirty yards behind
the Yellow-leg when the latter reached the shore and
which, on losing sight of its quarry, bounded straight
upward to a height of forty feet or more and then
poised for several seconds beating its wings rapidly and
incessantly bending its head downward like a hovering
Sparrow Hawk or Kingfisher as it closely scanned the