222 A BIRD VER'S APRIL. 
On the evening of the 6th, just at dusk, I 
had started up the road for a lazy after-dinner 
saunter, when I was brought to a sudden halt 
by what on the instant I took for the cry of a 
night-hawk. But no night-hawk could be here 
thus early in the season, and listening further, 
I perceived that the bird, if bird it was, was on 
the ground, or, at any rate, not far from it. 
Then it flashed upon me that this was the note 
of the woodcock, which I had that very day 
startled upon this same hillside. Now, then, 
for another sight of his famous aerial courtship 
act! So, scrambling down the embankment, 
and clambering over the stone-wall, I pushed up 
the hill through bushes and _ briers, till, having 
come as near the bird as I dared, I crouched, 
and awaited further developments. I had not 
long to wait, for after a few yaks, at intervals 
of perhaps fifteen or twenty seconds, the fellow 
took to wing, and went soaring in a circle above 
me; calling hurriedly click, click, click, with a 
break now and then, as if for breath-taking. 
All this he repeated several times; but unfor- 
tunately it was too dark for me to see him, ex- 
cept as he crossed a narrow illuminated strip of 
sky just above the horizon line. I judged that 
he mounted to a very considerable height, and 
dropped invariably into the exact spot from 
which he had started. For a week or twol 
