AMERICAN WOODCOCK 69 



John T. Nichols tells, in his notes, of a brood found on Long 

 Island : 



This brood was found early in the morning by working painstakingly in a 

 narrow stand of trees where a nest was suspected. The parent bird rose from 

 almost under foot and fluttered away, as is customary in such cases, with tail 

 spread, pointing down, legs dangling wide apart. It was perhaps a minute 

 before the eye could pick out four young lying motionless side by side, so incon- 

 spicuous was their color against the background. For another couple of 

 minutes they lay motionless. Then of one accord rolled to their feet and 

 spreading their baby wings aloft, as though to balance, walked deliberately 

 away with fine, scarcely audible cheeping, each in a slightly different direc- 

 tion. Apparently reliable reports are current of the woodcock carrying its 

 young, but the characteristic peculiar labored flight, with deflected tail and 

 widespread legs, just described, may also easily give such an impression 

 erroneously. 



Again he writes : 



Just after sunrise on a clear morning I came upon 3 birds in an open field. 

 Two of them flew in different directions, one swiftly and silently quickly dis- 

 appeared, the other in the peculiar fluttering manner characteristic of a parent 

 when surprised with young. As I reached the point where the two had risen 

 the presence of helpless young was confirmed by the actions of a bird on the 

 ground some 75 yards away, at the edge of the trees to which the parent had 

 flown. Its head up, watching me, both wings were extended to the side, flapping 

 feebly. 



I had stood a couple of minutes scrutinizing the ground about, when my eye 

 alighted on a fledgling. At the same instant it rose to its feet, raised and 

 extended its wings to the side, and began to walk rapidly away, calling a high- 

 pitched seep ! Its wings were fully feathered, though little grown, feathers 

 extending narrowly between them across the back, sides of its lower parts 

 feathered, feathers not quite meeting in the center, otherwise in down. Con- 

 trast its helplessness with the young bobwhite which flies at a much earlier 

 stage. 



Audubon (1840) describes the actions of the anxious mother in the 

 following well-chosen words: 



She scarcely limps, nor does she often flutter along the ground, on such 

 occasions ; but with half extended wings, inclining her* head to one side, and 

 uttering a soft murmur, she moves to and fro, urging her young to hasten 

 towards some secure spot beyond the reach of their enemies. Regardless of 

 her own danger, she would to all appearance gladly suffer herself to be seized, 

 could she be assured that by such a sacrifice she might ensure the safety of 

 her brood. On an occasion of this kind, I saw a female woodcock lay herself 

 down on the middle of a road, as if she were dead, while her little ones, five in 

 number, were endeavoring on feeble legs to escape from a pack of naughty 

 boys, who had already caught one of them, and were kicking it over the dust 

 in barbarous sport. The mother might have shared the same fate, had I not 

 happened to issue from the thicket, and interpose in her behalf. 



Plumages. — The downy young woodcock, when newly hatched, 



is conspicuously and handsomely marked; the upper parts are ' ; warm 



buff" or "light ochraceous buff," distinctively marked with rich 



"seal brown"; these markings consist (with some individual varia- 



54267—27 6 



