AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 211 



NOTES ON A CAPTIVE WOODCOCK. 



Towards the latter part of June of the present year (1901) a remark- 

 ably fine specimen of an adult female woodcock {P. minor') in perfect plum- 

 age came into my posseseion. Some lawless person had evidently shot at 

 it somewhere in the immediate environs of Washington, D. C, and the 

 bewildered bird flew into the very heart of the city, where it was captured. 

 Upon examination 1 found that it had received but two very slight wounds 

 made by small-sized shot. One was in a middle toe of one of the feet and 

 the other a wing shot; that was not discovered until the bird had been in 

 my keeping a day or so. This latter injury prevented it from making any 

 extended flight, while it admitted of giving it its liberty in the court in the 

 rear of my residence, where it could go about among the flowers and long 

 grass to its heart's content. At the end of a week, however, it made 

 good its escape, but not until every possible advantage had been taken 

 to study its habits in confinement, and I had succeeded in making an ele- 

 gant series of photographic negatives of it, representing the bird in a 

 variety of attitudes, together with a life-size figure of its head. Two of 

 these photographs have been reproduced to illustrate the present article. 



Captive snipe and captive sandpipers and all their near allies are no- 

 torious for their extreme gentleness under these conditions, but of all the 

 birds I ever handled in captivity this woodcock was certainly the most so. 

 From the very first it made no attempt to resist my handling or to escape 

 from my holding it. In a few hours it readily ate several large angling 

 worms out of my hand, and drank freely of water as I held it near a 

 large-mouthed bottle I had filled for it. After feeding, it would regard me 

 with its great, soft brown eyes filled with every expression of gratitude, — 

 and surely no bird in all the world has a finer or a more lovely pair of 

 eyes in its head than our woodcock. 



After I became the owner of this specimen, it was my hope that it 

 might be possible to find out something not already positively ascertained 

 in regard to the production of its notes, and what sounds its wings gave 

 rise to when excited to rapid motion. But in all this I was doomed to dis- 

 appointment, for this particular bird could in no way be induced to utter a 

 single note the entire time it was in my possession, beyond one or two 

 little sort of plaintive bleats; while, when it was held by its bill, and its 

 wings set in violent motion, the sound they gave rise to was more like 

 that emitted by a rapidly revolving fan, than anything they produce 

 probably during the normal impulsive flight of the woodcock in its natural 

 haunts. After a few attempts my experiments in this direction were re- 

 linquished, and in any event, such investigations should be made upon 

 individuals that had in no way been injured, however slight the wounds 

 might be, and for such purposes woodcocks taken in nets or other kinds 

 of traps or snares ought to be the only kind employed. 



