446 THE WOODCOCK. 



study; while its sudden appearance in large numbers, or its 

 entire disappearance all at once, gives its capture the air of 

 chance. Reaching Western New York about the first of 

 April, this bird resorts to the swamps, low woods, thickets, 

 or the hill-sides. 



In this region the nidification of the Woodcock occurs in 

 the latter part of April. The nest is on the ground, in some 

 low woods or thicket, sheltered by a bush, or bunch of grass, 

 or ferns, is formed, quite indifferently, of dried leaves or 

 grasses, and contains four or five eggs, some 1.51 x 1-19, and 

 much more oval than the eggs of allied birds. They are a 

 light creamish-brown, pretty well spotted, especially around 

 the large end, but not heavily blotched with reddish-brown 

 and lilac. I have now in my possession an ^^^ of this 

 species which is almost round. 



The young, nearly the color of brown chickens, run about 

 as soon as hatched. When in Nova Scotia last June (1883), 

 riding with a friend through a rather open woods, about the 

 15th, a female Woodcock rose from almost under the car- 

 riage wheels. Looking down I spied five half-grown young 

 ones squatting motionless within a few feet of the wheel- 

 track. Stopping the vehicle, I jumped out and went almost 

 near enough to touch them, when they rose and left in 

 haste, about as well able to fly as the parent. How did 

 they learn to "play 'possum" in this manner? 



How the Woodcock feeds in the dusky twilight, or at 

 night; how neatly he bores the soft ground in quest of 

 earth-worms, or turns the leaves in search of his food; what 

 immense quantities he consumes; how he changes place, 

 from the swamp to the woods, to the hill-side, or to the 

 grain-fields, according to the weather or the season; how he 

 leaves us for the south when frosts set in — all this has been 

 frequently and well noted alike by the ornithologist and 



