The Woodcock. 303 



dark brown ; crown, from the forepart of the eye backwards, black, 

 crossed by three narrow bands of brownish white ; cheeks, marked 

 with a bar of black, variegated with light brown ; edges of the 

 back, and of the scapulars, pale bluish white ; back and scapulars, 

 deep black, each feather tipped or marbled with light brown and 

 bright ferruginous, with numerous fine zigzag lines of black cros- 

 sing the lighter parts ; quills, plain dusky brown ; tail, black, each 

 feather marked along the outer edge with small spots of pale brown 

 and ending in narrow tips, of a pale drab color above, and silvery 

 white below ; lining of the wing, bright rust ; legs and feet, a pale 

 reddish flesh color ; eye, very full and black, seated high and very 

 far back in the head ; weight, live ounces and a-half, sometimes six. 



The female is twelve inches long, and eighteen in extent, weio-hs 

 eight ounces, and differs also in having the bill very near thre« 

 inches in length ; the black on the back is not quite so intense ; 

 and the sides under the wings are slightly barred with dusky. 



The young Woodcocks of a week or ten days old are covered 

 with down of a brownish white color, and are marked from the 

 bill along the crown to the hind head, with a broad stripe of deep 

 brown ; another line of the same passes through the eyes to the 

 hind head, curving under the eye ; from the back to the rudiments 

 of the tail, runs another of the same tint, and also on the sides 

 under the wings ; the throat and breast are considerably tino-ed 

 with rufous ; and the quills at this age are just bursting from their 

 light blue sheaths, and appear marbled, as in the old birds • the 

 legs and bill are of a pale purplish ash colour, the latter about 

 an inch long. When taken, they utter a long, clear, but feeble 

 'peep^ not louder than that of a mouse. They are hr inferior to 

 young Partridges in running and skulking ; and, should the female 

 unfortunately be killed, may easily be taken on the spot." 



Audubon says that when the Woodcocks are travelling from the 

 south towards all parts of the United States, ou their way to their 

 breeding places, they migrate singly, and follow each other with 

 such rapidity that they might be said to arrive in flocks, the one 

 coming directly in the wake of the other. This is particularly 

 observable by a person standing on the eastern banks of the 

 Mississippi or the Ohio, in the evening at dusk, from the middle of 

 March to that of April, when almost every instant there whizzes 

 past him a Woodcock with a velocity equalling that of our swiftest 

 birds. He states also that he has seen them in New Brunswick 

 returning southward in equal numbers late in the evening, and in 



