66 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The usual nesting sites are in alder runs, swampy thickets, brushy- 

 corners in pastures, or in underbrush or tall weeds along the edges; 

 of woods. Woodcocks are early breeders and it sometimes happens. 

 that nests are buried under late falls of snow; in such cases the 

 birds continue to sit as long as it is possible to do so. The nest is 

 often placed at the foot of a small tree or bush, occasionally beside 

 a log or stump or even under fallen brush. An abundance of fallen 

 leaves seems to be an essential requirement, of which the nest is 

 usually made and among which the bird relies on its protective 

 coloration for concealment ; but its big black eyes sometimes reveal it. 



L. Whitney Watkins (1894) found a nest near Manchester, Mich- 

 igan, in heavy timber, and within a few feet of a reed-bordered,, 

 springy spot, it was within 2 feet of an ovenbird's nest. Another 

 nest he describes as follows : 



The old bird, curiously enough, had selected for her nesting site an open 

 spot where some fallen boughs had partially decayed, and within 5 feet of a 

 picket fence enclosing an open pasture field. Opposite her on the other side,, 

 were ash, elm, oak, and other trees, of no considerable size, and round about 

 were many frost-dried stems of aster and goldenrod, interspersed with the 

 fallen leaves of the previous summer. Little of green was near. 



E. G. Taber (1904) found a nest that was situated in a swampy 

 corner of a field planted with corn, only 6 feet from the open, on a 

 slightly raised portion of the ground. This corner was overgrown 

 with black ash, soft maple, tag alders, and ferns, mingled with 

 poison ivy. Mr. Brewster (1925) describes two, of several, nests; 

 found near Umbagog Lake, Maine, as follows : 



One, containing four eggs, incubated perhaps as many days, was in the 

 face of a low mound partially overarched by balsam shrubs surrounded on 

 every side by pools of water, and some 80 yards from the lake shore near the 

 middle of swampy, second-growth woods made up chiefly of aspen, red cherry, 

 and yellow birch trees, 20 or 30 feet in height, beneath which grew alders 

 rather abundantly. The female woodcock flew up from her eggs at least 15 

 feet in advance of me, and whistling faintly soared off over the tree tops 

 to be seen no more. I flushed a male about 50 yards from this nest. 



Of the other he says: 



It was at the edge of a little fern-grown opening, on a mound covered 

 with brakes flattened and bleached by winter snows, beneath a balsam scarce 

 2 feet high, and not dense enough to afford much concealment for the eggs 

 which, indeed, caught my eye when I was 15 feet away, there being no bird 

 on them. 



Mr. Trostler (1893) writes: 



Finding a nest one day, I disturbed the setting bird three times, and again 

 four times on the next day, and on the morning of the third day I found 

 that the birds had removed the eggs during the night and placed them in aj 

 new nest about 8 feet away, where I found the eggs. I had marked the eggs 

 to avoid any mistake. The second nest was a mere hollow in the mossy 



