AVERY BIRD COLLECTION 31 



part of Hale County, with a dog trained to hunt them, 

 the shooter might bag half a dozen of these interesting 

 birds in a day. There are many more of them always 

 than one would suppose, as they escape notice by their 

 retired habits. The almost impenetrable briar patches 

 and slouglis, where they lie concealed till twilight, save 

 many of them from the bird bag. At that hour of the 

 day the whistle of their wings may be heard as they pass 

 swiftly by to their feeding grounds in tiie open lields. 

 They are mute till the nesting season, which begins here 

 early in February. Then they are quite a noisy bird. 

 The male makes his whereabouts known at that time by 

 ascending on sounding pinions, just before night, and, 

 suspended several hundred feet above some open land, 

 cotton or corn field, now bare, he plays fantastic tunes 

 before high Heaven. The observer might mistake these 

 tunes, which the woodcock plays with his wings, for 

 songs ; but he cannot produce a musical sound except with 

 his wings, which are the Aeolian-harp, and the primaries 

 or pinions are the strings of that harp, whose vibrations 

 are very similar to the sounds produced by running the 

 fingers over the strings of a guitar. 



"When this aerial performance, which lasts for several 

 minutes, is ended, he falls headlong to the ground, and 

 so rapidly that he is generally secure from any untimely 

 shot that might be intended for him. 



"Now begins his call to his dusky partner. There is no 

 music in that 'spake' followed by a dissyllable so low and 

 whispered that it can be heard only at a few feet distant, 

 'gooduck!' All is silent; then comes another 'spake! goo- 

 duck !' This is certainly not musical ; but it answers the 

 purpose of a song and serves to attract the female. 



"Woodcocks were 'soaring' and 'spaking' here on the 

 sixth of last February — 'spaking,' as the Irishman would 

 say, to their fair companions. Is there a shooter — I will 

 not say a sportsman — who kills woodcocks here in the 

 South in February? If there is, he is not a sportsman, 

 but an assassin." (1890a). 



In Dr. Avery's original note books, under date of Feb. 

 23, 1893, is the following entry: 



