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I came to this town to live, in April, ten years ago, one of my first concerns was to find a woodcock resort. The friend with whom I commonly took a stroll at sundown had never heard the "evening hymn" of that bird, and, knowing him for a lover of "the poetry of earth," I was eager to help him to a new pleasure. If the thing was to be done at all, it must be done soon, as the bird's musical season is brief. So we walked and made inquiries.

A farmer, who knew the region well, told us that woodcock used to be common about a certain swamp, but had not been so, he thought, of recent years. We visited it, of course, but heard nothing. Then the same man bethought himself of a likelier place, farther away. Thither, also, we went, having to hasten our steps, for the bird must be caught at precisely such a minute, between