Last woodcock of the season
Marston's Mills,
MASS. [Marston's Mills, Massachusetts] D. coronata [Dendroica coronata] abundant on Cape Cod.
1876.
(Dec. 5 [December 5, 1876]) in height an [and] completely festooned with bull
briar and with grape vines. Only by the
pathway of the brook can it be penetrated, 
& in many places the grape vines are
swung across that so thickly that it is very
hard to get through them. All the way
down little springy runs empty into
the brook after spreading about through
the cover on either side. These never freeze
and many of them were to day as green
as a June meadow. Here the snipe lay &
feed a great part of the time though they
go down on the salt marshes as good
deal at night to feed on the flats exposed
by the tide. I started seven in all this
afternoon and shot down three only
one of which however my dog found but
that one he pointed dead in good style.
The [They] acted differently from any snipe that I
ever saw. As I waded down the brook they
would rise with a heavy whirring of the
wings and topping the trees like woodcock,
fly off [delete]to[/delete] either down or up the brook. Others
would start from the bank and flit in perfect
silence over the brook for fifteen yards or
more & light again. In this way I started one
some five or six times before I got a shot,
always driving him ahead of me. Only one that
I flushed in a little meadow flew & scaiped 
in the usual style. Capt. B. [Captain Baxter] affirms that he saw
a woodcock here in Jany. [January 1876] & I examined a Rallus
Virginianus which he shot Nov. 30th 1872 [November 30, 1872] in 
this place. Saw upwards of 50 Dend. coronata [Dendroica coronata]
a M. melodia [Melospiza melodia], a large flock of S. magna [Sturnella magna], &
a flock of Er. alpestris. [Eremophila alpestris]. I have no doubt that D.
coronata winters here in numbers.
[margin]Robert Nesbitt started a woodcock in Belmont - the last one seen at Concord was flushed by H. Buttrick [Humphrey Buttrick] Nov. 27 [November 27, 1876].[/margin]