58 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



from the adult. Adults have a complete postnuptial molt from July 

 to December and a partial prenuptial molt, involving nearly every- 

 thing but the wings, from February to May. 



Food. — Mr. Gordon (1915) refers to the feeding habits of the 

 woodcock as follows: 



It feeds mainly by night on wet, boggy ground, and eats an enormous quan- 

 tity of worms ; indeed, it may swallow almost its own weight of food in the 

 course of a single day. When the blackberries have ripened the woodcock 

 betake themselves to the hillsides and consume great quantities of the fruit. 



Mr. Slater (1898) says: 



I have occasionally flushed woodcocks at night from wet rushy fields, where 

 they were doubtless probing the ground for worms and larvae, occasionally 

 turning over the droppings of cattle for concealed beetles. But they also feed 

 in woods to a certain extent, turning the dead leaves over to find insects, 

 etc. The accounts of the extent of their appetites and of the amount of 

 worms, etc., which they will put away at a sitting are surprising. These they 

 find in the earth with their bills, which are modified into a very delicate 

 organ of touch. 



If the horny epidermis be removed, a number of small pits of a hexagonal 

 shape will be seen in the bone at the end of the bill, remotely suggesting an 

 incipient honey comb. In each one of these pits a minute fibril of the olfactory 

 nerve has its termination, and by this means, when the bill is thrust into the 

 soft, wet soil, the slightest wriggle of the least living creature is instantly 

 telegraphed to the woodcock's sensibilities. 



Witherby's Handbook (1920) includes the following items in its 

 food: Earthworms; also insects (coleoptera and their larvae, orth- 

 optera {Forficiila) larvae of lepidoptera, etc.) ; small mollusca, etc. 

 Grains of maize recorded on one occasion in stomach, and mussels 

 (Mytilus) also said to be eaten, as well as small Crustacea. 



BeJuivior. — Mr. Gordon (1915) says: 



During its flight the bill of the woodcock is pointed downwards, and the 

 wings are not extended to their full stretch. It seldom makes sustained 

 flights, however, except on migration. During a shoot at Alniek a woodcock 

 was seen to alight on the ground and then to throw leaves over its back, pre- 

 sumably to bide itself from the guns. If so, it would seem that the woodcock 

 is one of the most sagacious of birds. 



Selby (1833) writes: 



The haunts selected by these birds, for their residence during the daytime, 

 are usually the closest brakes of birch and other brushy underwood, and 

 where the ground, from the deep shade, is nearly free from herbage ; and, 

 for this reason, thick fir plantations of 10 or 12 years' growth are a favorite 

 resort. In woods that are very extensive they are generally found, and 

 abound most in thickets by the sides of open glades, or where roads intersect, 

 as by these they pass to and from their feeding ground at evening and in the 

 dawn of the morning. Unless disturbed, they remain quietly at roost upon 

 the ground during the whole day, but as soon as the sun is wholly below the 

 horizon, they are in full activity, and taking flight nearly at the same instant. 



