"   A(SPoc., Fa&dtnl 
 
Reprinted from Two Alm, Vol. XLIX. October, 1932. 
Northern New England Woodcock.-In the vicinity of Farmington, 
Franklin Co., Maine, a party of three or four sportsmen, headed by the 
late Richard C. Storey of Boston, hunted Woodcock for thirty years. 
Through the courtesy of Mrs. Storey I was able to study the records of 
these annual shooting parties. They extended through the best part of 
the October flight and averaged about fifteen days of shooting each autumn.

The records are a model for this kind of upland shooting. In nearly all 
cases each individual "cover" is mentioned by name and the number
of 
birds started and shot in it are recorded every day. Thus it is easy to total

the number of birds started and shot each year, and the length of time in

days of each annual hunt. 
There has been a great difference of opinion on the status of the Wood- 
cock and as in all cases of the sort, loose statements based on casual ob-

servations have been given more credit than they deserve. A generation 
ago it was held by some competent naturalists that the Woodcock was a 
doomed species. Even now, when for at least twenty-five years we in 
New England have noted a rather steady advance in numbers, the story is