212 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
“Tf it had been dead, its eyes would have been closed,” 
said Gray Lady. ‘“Itis one of the many mysterious and 
unaccountable facts about a bird, that it is the only 
animal that closes its own eyes when death touches it.’ 
“Tt wasn’t afraid, so I thought that I would just smooth 
its feathers,’ said Dave. “I did, and it didn’t fly, only 
just puffed up a little, so I thought I would lift it very 
carefully to see if there were any eggs under it, and there 
were four nice, sort of round, light, brown eggs, the 
colour that our Plymouth Rocks lay, only mottled. But the 
bird didn’t like to be lifted, and she sort of growled inside, 
the way a hen does, so I set her down and went away.” 
“That was a very pleasant experience of yours, Dave, 
and shows how tame game-birds will become if they are 
kindly treated. This Woodcock has an advantage over 
the Grouse and Bob-white, his cousin, because it travels 
South in winter and constantly shifts its feeding-places, 
but it suffers from other dangers: it is hunted in all the 
states through which it passes, and the eggs are large 
enough to be very attractive, not only to foxes and all 
the gnawing creatures of the woods, but to people as 
well. If that nest and eggs had been seen by one of those 
foreign-born poachers who come here thinking that every- 
thing they find out-of-doors, and they can pocket, belongs 
to them, the poor Woodcock would have lost her entire 
brood and perhaps her own life as well. 
* * * * * * * 
“These three land-birds, together with a number of 
wild ducks, that live some on fresh and some near salt 
water, travelling North and South according to season, 
