WOODCOCK. 95 



It rarely breeds on the Atlantic coast, but is some- 

 times common on our marsh-bordered streams in the 

 fall. 



SHORE BIRDS. (ORDER LIMICOL^.) 



Snipes and Sandpipers. (Family Scolopacidje.) 



The successful pursuit of shore birds on our coasts 

 requires a special knowledge of their notes and habits. 

 Thirty of the one hundred known species \dsit us annu- 

 ally, but of this number only two or three nest, most of 

 the others migrating in May to their breeding grounds in 

 the far J^ortli. The return migration takes place during 

 July, August, and Septeml^er, but with some exceptions 

 these birds are seen only by those who hunt them sys- 

 tematically with decoys. 



Only these exceptions and our summer resident species 

 will be mentioned here. Commonest among the latter 

 is the Woodcock, a bird so unlike other 

 „,.,,, .' . Snipe in his choice of haunts that he 

 seems quite out of place in this family. 

 Xor is he, strictly speaking, a summer resident, for there 

 are only three months in the year when the Woodcock 

 is not with us. He comes in March as soon as the frost- 

 bound earth will permit him to probe for his diet of 

 worms, and he remains until some December freeze 

 drives him southward. 



Low, wet woods, where skunk cabbage and hellebore 

 thrive, or bush-grown, springy runs, are the Woodcock's 

 early haunts. In August, while molting, he often visits 

 cornfields in the bottom lands, and in the fall wooded 

 hillsides are his resorts. But, wherever he is, the Wood- 

 cock leaves his mark in the form of " borings " — little holes 

 which dot the earth in clusters, and show where the bird 



