222 A BIRD-LOVERS APRIL. 



On the evening of the 6th, just at dusk, I 

 had started up the road for a lazy after-dinner 

 saunter, when I was brought to a sudden halt 

 by what on the instant 1 took for the cry of a 

 night-hawk. But no night-hawk could be here 

 thus early in the season, and listening further, 

 I perceived that the bird, if bird it was, was on 

 the ground, or, at any rate, not far from it. 

 Then it flashed upon me that this was the note 

 of the woodcock, which I had that very day 

 startled upon this same hillside. Now, then, 

 for another sight of his famous aerial courtship 

 act ! So, scrambling down the embankment, 

 and clambering over the stone- wall, I pushed up 

 the hill through bushes and briers, till, having 

 come as near the bird as I dared, I crouched, 

 and awaited further developments. I had not 

 long to wait, for after a few yaks, at intervals 

 of perhaps fifteen or twenty seconds, the fellow 

 took to wing, and went soaring in a circle above 

 me ; calling hurriedly click, click, click, with a 

 break now and then, as if for breath-taking. 

 All this he repeated several times ; but unfor- 

 tunately it was too dark for me to see him, ex- 

 cept as he crossed a narrow illuminated strip of 

 sky just above the horizon line. I judged that 

 he mounted to a very considerable height, and 

 dropped invariably into the exact spot from 

 which he had started. For a week or two I 



