Snipe, Sandpipers, etc. 



woods, usually near a stump, where the four buffy eggs, spotted 

 over with reddish brown, are laid, often before the snow has 

 melted, in April. A dry place being chosen for the nesting site, 

 it sometimes becomes necessary to transport the funny little 

 fluffy, long-billed chicks to muddy hunting grounds, and the 

 mother has been detected in the act of flying with one of her 

 brood held between her thighs. But the chicks are by no means 

 helpless, even from the instant they leave the shell. It is a pretty 

 sight to see a little family poking about at twilight for larvae, 

 worms, and small insects, among the decayed leaves, the fallen 

 logs, and the ferns and skunk cabbages. Peep, peep, they call, 

 quite like barnyard chicks. 



By the first of August the woodcocks, deserting the low, 

 wet lands, scatter themselves over the country in corn fields, 

 grassy meadows, birch covered hillsides, "alder runs," pine 

 forests, and thick, cool, moist undergrowth, near woods; and 

 now they moult. No whistling of wings can be heard as the 

 birds heavily labor along near the ground, often unable to raise 

 their denuded bodies higher. In September, when the sportsmen 

 make sad havoc in the flocks, already gathering for migration, 

 they are found in the dense thickets of wooded uplands, where a 

 stream flows to keep the ground soft; and in October, when the 

 birds are in prime condition, the spot that contained scores at 

 evening may hold none by morning. The russet colored birds 

 mingle with the russet colored leaves, and, as they lie close, it 

 takes a good dog to find them. The woodcocks migrate silently 

 by night, and an early frost, that stiffens the ground, drives them 

 off suddenly to softer territory southward. Hence the delightful 

 element of uncertainty enters into the hunting of this bird, that 

 is here to-day and gone to-morrow. When flushed, its flight 

 appears to be feeble, as, after a few whistles of its short, stiff 

 wings, and trailing its legs behind it, it quickly drops into cover 

 again, running a little distance on alighting, but the distances 

 covered in migrations prove it to be no unskilled flier. 



303 



