THE WOODCOCK. 181 



«!on, uLtil near nine o'clock in the evening, and is prolonged 

 for a number of days during the period of incubation, pro- 

 bably ceasing with the new cares attendant on the hatching 

 of the brood. The female, as in the European species, is 

 greatly attached to her nest, and an instance is related to 

 me of a hen being taken up from it, and put on again with- 

 out attempting to fly. 



ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 



Mr. Latham mentions a female of the common Wood, 

 cock sitting on her eggs so tamely, that she suffered herself 

 to be stroked on the back without offering to rise, and the 

 male, no less interested in the common object of their cares, 

 lat also close at hand. The European species has had the 

 3-edit of exercising so much ingenuity and affection, as to 

 ^ize upon one of its weakly young, and cany it along to a 

 place of security from its enemies. 



Mr. Ives, of Salem, once on flushing an American Wood- 

 cock from its nest, was astonished to see that it carried off 

 in its foot one of its brood, the only one which happened to 

 be newly hatched ; and as the young run immediately on 

 leaving the shell, it is obvious that the little nurslings 

 could be well reared, or all of them, as they might appear, 

 without the aid of the nest, now no longer secured fron 

 intrusion. 



In New England this highly esteemed game is oommon 

 m the market of Boston to the close of October^ but they 



