Intimate Acquaintance With Woodcocks 3 



the season when they are laying, but I would not consider it 

 wet in comparison with much of the adjacent territory, which 

 is apt to consist of marshes, lakes and spring holes. I have 

 no doubt but that the woodcocks probe for earth worms in 

 the earth immediately surrounding the nesting site, but this 

 locality is not muddy nor oozy enough to retain the perfora- 

 tions caused by the bird's bills. 



Large, chalky deposits caused by the birds are without 

 exception very much in evidence near the nest. It is some- 

 times possible to locate the nest by following these daubs 

 upon the leaves. Again the droppings ma.y occur seventy- 

 five yards from the nest, and in the cover used by the male 

 as a roosting place during the daytime. 



In little openings wdiere the male goes forth at sundown 

 for the song flight is another likely spot for chalk marks. 

 The peculiar nasal "pink," as it sounds to me, is first heard 

 shortl}^ after sundown at intervals of every five minutes dur- 

 ing the first half hour. If the day has been extremely cool 

 and wet the males seem less ardorous, and the call may be 

 uttered two or three times prior to the first flight. 



We will presume that a typical April day has drawn to a 

 close. The temperature is about 50°. We are in northern 

 Illinois groping our way through the brush on what appears 

 to be an old moraine of Lake ^Michigan. From yonder clump 

 of willows a rather shrill call startles us. Surely no Night- 

 hawks are about, for it is too early in the year to even expect 

 them, yet the sound was decidedly suggestive of the call note 

 of our "bull-bat." My companion is quite sure the author 

 of this weird sound is only a few rods away. But, as we move 

 cautiously in the direction, the sound is repeated, but we do 

 not seem to be any closer to the object of our search. The 

 bird is an adept ventriloquist and is probably six or seven 

 times as far away as we had first supposed. While we are 

 gradually gaining upon him other males are heard calling, 

 and the wooded area harbors several woodcocks, each calling 

 in turn, until the notes vibrate through the spring air like 

 the trilling of tree-toads or the singing of katydids on a 

 midsummer's eve. We hasten to a point of vantage before 



