Dec. 12 Clear with sharp breeze air. Started off at daylight with St. Dean for 6 days tramp and put up our horn at Mr. Boyant's in Dorchester. Flushed 5 grouse and a brace of quail. Shot worked well on the grouse as usual and made a number of fine points but we both shot very poorly. One grouse which we got into the open we fired Turner shots at before bringing him to bay. The quail all lit on a little oak knoll in a meadow but we proceeded in flushing only three of them again, though afterwards heard the remainder whistling in the very spot which we had beaten so carefully. I now find so many chat cases of the withholding of scent as draw some under my observation this fall, and I consider it a perfect rule that when a bird is hunted and its numbers thundered out, the grouse closely do their best to keep quiet; the more tenaciously do they retain their scent. Saw large numbers of Perisotus lucius among the birches but only two goshawks all day through we hunted one on the dry corn ground where they were so numerous on the 5th inst. Saw also a single Centrocita am. Bag: W.D. grouse 1, R.D. quail 1. Reached home by 6 P.M.