AMERICAN" WOODCOCK 63 



evening one could find them almost anywhei-e. They were seen in the most 

 unlikely places even in daylight. They were in all the towns around Boston 

 and in the suburbs of the city itself, and west at least to the Connecticut Val- 

 ley they were even more numerous in the woods and swamps. In southern 

 New England at this time a large part of the snow had gone and in going had 

 thawed the ground so that no frost remained and the woodcocks could find 

 earthworms almost everywhere. Farther north there was not only frost in 

 the ground but there was deep snow and the birds could find no food. 



Courtship. — The woodcock may be found by those who seek him 

 and know his haunts, but it is only for a short time during the breed- 

 ing season, that he comes out into the open and makes himself con- 

 spicuous. His spectacular evening song-flight has been seen by 

 many observers, and numerous writers have referred to it or de- 

 scribed it more or less fully. William Brewster (1894) has given 

 us the best and most complete account of it, but it is too long to quote 

 in full here. I prefer to give my own version of it. The time to 

 look and listen for it is during the laying and incubation period — 

 say the month of April in Massachusetts, earlier farther south, even 

 December and January in the Gulf States. The performance usually 

 begins soon after sunset, as twilight approaches. On dark nights 

 it ceases about when the afterglow finally disappears in the western 

 sky ; and it begins again in the morning twilight, lasting from dawn 

 to broad daylight. On moonlight nights it is often continued 

 through much or all of the night. The woodcock's nest is usually 

 in some swampy thicket or on the edge of the woods, near an open 

 pasture, field, or clearing ; and here in the nearest open space, pref- 

 erably on some knoll or low hillside within hearing of his sitting 

 mate, the male woodcock entertains her with his thrilling perform- 

 ance. Sometimes, but not always, he struts around on the ground, 

 with tail erect and spread, and with bill pointing downwards and 

 resting on his chest. More often he stands still, or walks about 

 slowly in a normal attitude, producing at intervals of a few seconds 

 two very different notes — a loud, rasping, emphatic zeeip — which 

 might be mistaken for the note of the nighthawk, and a soft gut- 

 tural note, audible at only a short distance, like the croak of a frog 

 or the cluck of a hen. Suddenly he rises, and flies off at a rising 

 angle, circling higher and higher, in increasing spirals, until he looks 

 like a mere speck in the sky, mounting to a height of 200 or 300 

 feet; during the upward flight he whistles continuously, twittering 

 musical notes, like ttvitter, titer, titer, titer, repeated without a break. 

 These notes may be caused by the whistling of his wings, but it seems 

 to me that they are vocal. Then comes his true love song — a loud, 

 musical, three-syllable note — sounding to me like chickaree, chickaree, 

 chickaree uttered three times with only a slight interval between 

 the outbursts; this song is given as the bird flutters downward, 

 circling, zigzagging, and finally volplaning down to the ground at 



