"sol J Brewster, Notes and Song-Flight of the Woodcock. 2QI 



the adult, except for the colored tips to the black feathers. I am 

 inclined to think, however, that eight, or at the most ten, days 

 are sufficient for the change, instead of three years, as implied 

 or stated in the quotations given above. 



Immaturity in this species is therefore recognizable, especially 

 by the presence of differently colored tips to the head feathers, 

 which are more or less persistent until the birds moult again in 

 July of the following year ; there being, I have good reason to 

 believe, but one moult a year in this species. 



NOTES AND SONG-FLIGHT OF THE WOODCOCK 

 {PHILOHELA MINOR). 



BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 



In 1891, Mr. Walter Faxon and I spent two evenings and 

 one morning studying the notes and song-flight of the Wood- 

 cock, and the present article consists merely of a transcript of 

 the memoranda made on these occasions, — viz., the evenings 

 of April 7 and 13, and the morning of April S, the locality 

 being Lexington, Massachusetts. 



Lexington, Mass., April 7, i8qi. — Mr. Faxon found a 

 Woodcock singing on the evenings of the 5th and 6th and the 

 morning of the 7th on the top of a high hill near the village. 

 I went there with him this evening, arriving at 6.25, when the 

 bird was already peeping. There were seven song-flights and 

 eight peeping spells in the next thirty-five minutes, the last peep- 

 ing being unusually protracted and the bird, at its close, rising and 

 flying off* low down without singing, at precisely seven o'clock. 

 At this time it was still rather light or, at least, not nearly so 

 dark as the night afterwards became. The weather was cold 

 with a strong northwest wind, the sky overcast. The paaps 

 were uttered consecutively 31, 21, 37, 29, and 28 times, no 

 counts being made during the first and last calling periods. 

 The song proper (timed once only) lasted exactly ten seconds. 



