238 The Woodcock 
little time in making its nest, which consists simply 
of a slight depression lined with leaves or grass. 
Probably the wind had more to do with the collection 
of the nesting material than did the mother bird, 
and the shape of the nest is more largely due to the 
pressure of the body than to any real arrangement 
of the material. Here, in this carelessly constructed 
home, the mother bird deposits four buff colored 
eggs, spotted with brown or lavender; the situation 
of the nest and the coloring of the bird and the eggs 
form a most perfect example of protective colora- 
tion. 
The woodcock, ordinarily a very wild bird, can 
be easily approached during the period of incubation, 
or before the young can fly. This may be accounted 
for in the woodcock, and in other animals as well, 
by the mother love, so strong in nearly all of them. 
Even before the eggs are hatched the mother wood- 
cock, in luring you away from the nest and eggs, 
makes use of the same stratagem that she later em- 
ploys in protecting -her chicks.. The ruse isi: 
When the bird is flushed from her nest, she flutters 
about as though one wing were disabled. Your first 
impulse is the natural one; that is, to catch the bird. 
You step forward, and as you are about to pick her 
up, she flops just out of reach; one more effort on 
