Auk 



294 Brewster, Notes and Song-Flight of the Woodcock. foct 



bird was gliding down on a very gentle slope. Ye.x\\2L\>$ floating 

 would be a more correct term than gliding, for the motion was 

 comparatively slow. Towards the end of the song the descent 

 was steeper and the bird slid down the sky like a meteor. The 

 flight of this individual is evidently very erratic and subject to 

 excessive variations. I ran to the peeping spot during the third 

 ascent but the bird alighted where I could not see him, owing 

 partly to the darkness, partly to intervening obstructions of brush 

 or grass. The next two times he was equally unaccommodating 

 although he chose different spots, both within thirty yards of 

 me, on each return. I then made another run and crouched in 

 the middle of a ground juniper. Fatal mistake ! I could not 

 move without making a loud rustle or crunching of dry twigs. 

 It was too late to change again, however, for the next instant the 

 bird shot close over my head and alighted directly behind me 

 not ten feet ofl~. I could hear his wings rustle as he closed 

 them. An interval of silence, a pH-ul, and then the harsh 

 paap smote on my ear with fairly painful effect. At this close 

 range it had a strange, vibrating quality. It seemed to penetrate 

 my brain as if some one had blown a blast on a fish horn 

 within a foot of my head. Another and another paap, each 

 preceded by the usual pH-ul. I now attempted to move, but 

 a slight sound which I made caused the bird to cease peeping 

 at once. Silence for several seconds ; then the p't-ul repeated 

 six or eight times doubtfully ; then the peeping resumed. I did 

 not move again and the bird finishing its peeping rose and sang, 

 descending fifty yards away behind some bushes. The next 

 song-flight was the last. 



The p't-ul is, I believe (and Mr. Faxon confirms this) , usually 

 repeated many times in succession, without the alternating 

 paaps, when the bird is slightly alarmed or suspicious. My old 

 comparison of the p [ t-ul to the sound and its echo made by a 

 drop of water falling into a cistern struck me again this evening. 

 This note also somewhat resembles the remonstrance made by a 

 brooding hen, when disturbed. It can be heard about eighty- 

 five yards away under the most favorable conditions but ordi- 

 narily not beyond thirty or forty yards. The hill where this 

 bird sings is one of the highest (340 feet) near Lexington (220 

 feet). Its summit is broken by alternating knolls and hollows 



