SHOOTING THE WOODCOCK. 123 



truder from their neighborhood. The hen- wood- 

 cock is a tame bird when sitting, and will not 

 leave her nest for any light reason. When I 

 was a boy, they used to build in a swamp on 

 my father's iarm in Albany County, New York, 

 where I have more than once crawled up and 

 caught the old bird in my hand, and released 

 her after looking at her eggs. This would not 

 induce her to forsake her nest, and in this she 

 differs from some other wild birds. Wild ducks 

 are not easily driven from their nests, and, after 

 being disturbed once or twice, will still return 

 again. The English pheasant, if once flushed 

 directly off her eggs, always forsakes them. I 

 never saw more than five eggs in a woodcock's 

 nest, and usually there are but four. It has 

 been stated that a woodcock's nest, with eight 

 full-fledged young ones, was found on the banks 

 of Loch Lomond, in Scotland. I believe these 

 were the young of some other bird, if eight 

 were found, for the story is almost absurd on 

 its face. Young woodcocks, full-fledged, are 

 never found in a nest. The young, when first 

 hatched, might be, but they are then covered 

 with dowle, and not with feathers. The wood- 

 cock has been kept in confinement, and proved 



