OF NEW ENGLAND. 401 
most any definition of this term, is generally understood to be 
a bird that lies to a dog, and that can be shot only when on the 
wing. This definition, however, excludes, and we think rightly, 
the ‘“ Partridge” or Ruffed Grouse, who will not lie to a dog, but 
who on the contrary often takes to a tree, thus causing to the 
scientific sportsman constant annoyance. But the Woodcock is 
par excellence a game-bird, and, though he may play in a game 
of life and death to him, he adheres as scrupulously to rules of 
honor as any Knight-Errant of old. He may have his cunning 
devices, but he does not sneak or hide in trees. This conduct, 
however, finds no corresponding sentiment in his rapacious and 
improvident pursuer, to whose reckless cravings for sport or 
gain, we in New England are indebted for the present scarcity 
of the luscious Woodcock. Unless the laws, and general feel- 
ings on the subject, are greatly modified, comparatively few 
more years will suffice to nearly exterminate them. 
The Woodcock are almost universally distributed over North 
America, both as residents and birds of passage. We shall 
speak here of their habits in New England only. Though a 
friend once showed the writer a record of one or more Wood- 
cock killed in Massachusetts during every month of the year, 
these birds are migratory, and, though apparently often soli- 
tary in their flights, find their way, by an admirable instinet, 
through ‘the illimitable waste of air,” at least as far as from 
Labrador to Maryland. Many breed in the Southern States, 
even as far South as the Gulf, while others breed to the north- 
ward of Canada; but all pass the winter in the South, their 
northern range at that season being, it is believed, Maryland. 
They reach the neighborhood of Boston as early as March, and 
then, or more often early in April, they may be found on those 
dry hillsides, which were their last resorts in autumn. Almost 
immediately after their arrival, they begin to mate, and they 
may be observed in the dusk of evening to mount high in the 
air, going through a variety of eccentric motions, and from 
time to time darting suddenly down with great velocity. ‘The 
eggs are laid early in April, sometimes on a warm knoll, some- 
times on a high, bare hillside. After incubation has begun, it 
27 
