1902
March 29
(No 2)
at their tips in the same manner. One branch
which stretched out horosontal at a height of about
five feet had all the terminal twigs cut off. I take
this to have been the work of the Deer that was
seen in the lane last week & no doubt the
juniper at Ball's Hill was also clipped by the
same arrival.
Branches clipped off by Deer.
  I was in the brush grown pasture west of the
road before six o'clock. At 6.05 a Woodcock began
peeping keeping it up intermittently until 6.20 when
he made his first song flight. During the next 
half hour he went up at short intervals many times
always realighting in the same place, a circular, grassy
opening surrounded by bushes. I hid behind a cedar
& saw him alight and peep but it was so dark at
the time that I could not make him out at all
clearly. From 6.15 to 6.45 there was another bird
peeping continuously within twenty yards of the first
but during this period it did not once leave the
ground although when the other bird was in the air
it sometimes kept silent. Its peep was a little feebler
& flatter I thought than that of the singer. I was
sure at the time that it must be the mate of the
the other & I still believe this to have been so but
after I had returned to the house I distinctly heard
two birds sing in quick succession. One was just
on the verge of ear range, the other over the field
just across the road. Several times earlier in the evening
I thought three were pumping at once, two near me,
the third far off & this was probably really so.
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