OF NEW ENGLAND. 403 



ground. Their borings are certain signs, whicli are eagerly- 

 looked for by the sportsman. They also glean among decay- 

 ing leaves and logs, and in low, moist, vegetable growth ; but 

 from a peculiarity of structure or habit, their soft animal food 

 is so compressed and macerated in the swallowing that the 

 species eaten becomes indistinguishable, even when the bird is 

 shot just after eating. Rich, soft earth, running water, and 

 abundant shelter, are the most usual and certain conditions 

 for a summer cover. 



The young birds mature very rapidly, but are usually only 

 two-thirds grown in July. From the fact that often neither 

 parents, or at most only one of them, are to be found with the 

 young in their summer cover, and that birds only half grown 

 are frequently shot in September or late in October, it may be 

 inferred that two broods are raised in a season. It is certain 

 that a second set of eggs is laid, when those of the first nest 

 are destroyed, either by accident or by the common vicissitudes 

 of our climate, such as early snows, or long continued wet and 

 cold. There are great differences in the productiA^eness of 

 different seasons. The writer recalls one within a few years 

 when there was a heavy snow-storm in the middle of April, 

 and afterwards floods caused by northeasterly rains ; the sam.e 

 extensive grounds, over which he had been accustomed to get 

 three or four dozen biixls in the coui'se of Julj^, contained that 

 year just seven old birds, while a large portion of the few 

 Woodcock found in September were mere fledglings. Others 

 made similar observations during the same year. 



By the first of August a majority of the Woodcock desert 

 the low, wet grounds, and scatter themselves all over the 

 country, generally choosing, however, some dry spot, protected 

 by a dense second growth. The sportsman may chance to find 

 them, however, in the long grass of a meadow, and in a variety 

 of such places as corn-fields, pine-groves, bunches of dr}' alders, 

 knolls of cedar, hillsides of birch, woods of chestnuts, thickets 

 of briars, etc. They are now moulting and half-naked, and 

 they can no longer make that peculiar whistle which at all 

 other times warns the sportsman. Though they sometimes 



