BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 235 



Snipes, Sandpipers, etc. 



This great family {Scolopacidce) contains birds widely- 

 different in size, shape and color, but they are mainly of small 

 or medium size, never reaching the average size of the Herons. 

 The bill usually is long and soft skinned in life, generally 

 straight, roundish and slim, but sometimes curved up or 

 down, and in one genus the end is spoon-shaped. The head is 

 feathered to the bill; excepting a few species, they frequent 

 moist lands or the shores of bodies of w^ater. They inhabit 

 all habitable lands. 



WOODCOCK {Philohela 7ninor). 



Length. — 10 to 12 inches; bill nearly 3 inches. 



Adult. — Upper parts brown and russet or buflf, mixed with gray and marked 

 with blackish; back of head black, barred with buff; dark line from eye 

 to bill; under parts pale, warm brown, varying in intensity; tail black, 

 tipped with white; eye large, well back and high. 



Field Marks. — - Larger than a Robin. The long bill and the whistling sound 

 made by the wings in starting from the ground will identify the bird. 

 It is rarely found in the open meadow or marsh where Snipe congregate, 

 but rather in swampy woods or upland gardens and corn-fields. 



Notes. — A nasal peent or paip, and a twittering whistle (Chapman). A 

 curious p'tul (Hoffmann). Chip-pcr, chip-per chip (Samuels). 



Nest. — On ground in moist land. 



Eggs. — • Three or four; large, averaging about 1.60 by 1.1-4, ash gray to light 

 buff, with reddish brown or chocolate and stone gray markings. 



Season. — March to November; rare in winter. 



Range. — Eastern North America. Breeds from northeastern North Dakota, 

 southern Manitoba, northern Michigan, southern Quebec and Nova 

 Scotia south to southern Kansas, southern Louisiana and northern 

 Florida; winters from southern Missouri, the Ohio valley and New 

 Jersey (rarely Massachusetts) south to Texas and southern Florida; 

 ranges casually to Saskatchewan, Keewatin, Colorado, Newfoundland 

 and Bermuda. 



History. 

 Dr. D. G. Elliot (1895), in his work on North American 

 Shore Birds, states that the Woodcock is "gradually beconu'ng 

 scarcer within our limits." Dr. A. K. Fisher of the Biological 

 Survey, in his report on Two Vanishing Game Birds, specifies 

 the Woodcock and the Wood Duck as the species particularly 



