The Woodcock 241 
your part and she must surely be yours, but some- 
how she is always a little beyond your grasp. Finally, 
with a quick movement, she is on the wing and away, 
and you realize that you have been fooled by a mother 
woodcock. Your admiration for the bird and the 
animal creation in general has increased, and you 
are the better for having seen this proof of unselfish 
bird love. By this ruse the mother has led you some 
distance from the nest and eggs, and the chances are 
that you may not find them. If there are chicks and 
they are large enough to run, they have hidden them- 
selves long before your return. 
The chicks are fluffy little fellows, so like in color 
to the brown leaves on which they first open their 
eyes upon the big, strange world, that it is almost 
impossible to detect their small crouching forms. So 
strong is the instinct of concealment that you may 
find the little fellow prone upon a leaf, with eyes 
sometimes closed, and you may touch him without 
the slightest movement on his part. Even lift him 
gently in your hand, and he still obeys that wonderful 
something which we call instinct. I have been told 
that if the nest has often been visited and the old 
bird frequently disturbed, as soon as the eggs are 
hatched she carries the chicks away, one at a time, 
in her claws, to a place of safety. 
