318 MASS. (Middlesex Co.) 1876. Wednesday May 3 Nest of the woodcock Cloudy and chill, with E. wind. Spent the forenoon mounting birds, and took the 4.15 P.M. train for Concord when I met Jim by appointment and drove up to Mr. Robbins in Barlya to see a woodcock nest. Arriving a little before sunset Mr. R's eldest son conducted us to the nest. When we got within ten yards of it we stopped and our guide pointed out the sitting bird which we could distinctly see. Approaching slowly & keeping Jim's pointer at heel we got within arms length of the nest without disturbing the bird, and squatting down in a semicircle about her we fastid our eyes for full fifteen minutes on the interesting sight: interesting! may more than interesting; it was a very peak of Nature's romances it was; the beautifully marbled bird sitting quietly on her treasure within a few feet of her most deadly enemy, man to say nothing of the keen scented, Hunt pointer that had been instrumental in bringing her so many of her kindred. But then the brown bird sat apparently as impassive as if carved from stone; but see the other composer did but conceal the wildly beating heart within whose rapid pulsations were betrayed by a slight almost imperceptible corresponding movement of the tail and back, a heart filled with dread at the fearful danger but a heart without so brain that rather than betray the parents trust it was prepared to hazard life itself. The full dark eye, how beauty! that too. Not a motion of the eyelid came would its own allow all the time that we sat talking so near to her.