LESSER WOODCOCK. 197 



period of incubation, probably ceasing with the new cares 

 attendant on the hatching of the brood. The female, as in 

 the European species, is greatly attached to her nest, and 

 an instance is related to me of a hen being taken up from 

 it, and put on again without attempting to fly. Mr. 

 Latham mentions a female of the common Woodcock sit- 

 ting on her eggs so tamely, that she suffered herself to be 

 stroked on the back without offering to rise, and the male, 

 no less interested in the common object of their cares, sat 

 also close at hand. The European species has had the 

 credit of exercising so much ingenuity and affection, as to 

 seize upon one of its weakly young, and carry it along to a 

 place of security from its enemies. Mr. Ives of Salem, 

 once on flushing an American Woodcock from its nest, was 

 astonished to see that it carried off in its foot one of its brood, 

 the only one which happened to be newly hatched ; and as the 

 young run immediately on leaving the shell, it is obvious 

 that the little nursling could be well reared, or all of them, 

 as they might appear, without the aid of the nest, now no 

 longer secured from intrusion. In New England this highly 

 esteemed game is common in the market of Boston to the 

 close of October, but they all disappear in the latter part of 

 December. In this quarter of the Union they are scarcely 

 in order for shooting before the latter end of July, or be- 

 ginning of August ; but from this time to their departure, 

 they continue in good condition for the table. 



The springes or springers, set for Woodcocks in Europe, 

 in places they are found to frequent by the evidence of their 

 borings, &/C. are commonly formed of an elastic stick, to 

 which is fastened a horse-hair noose, put through a hole 

 in a peg, fastened into the ground, to which a trigger is 

 annexed : and in order to compel the Woodcock to walk 

 into the trap, an extended fence is made on each side, by 

 small sticks, set up close enough to prevent the bird passing 

 17* 



