animals are governed wholly by instinct, 

 but don't quote any facts you may have seen 

 until the world is ready for them> For j t is 



^g^er to call a thing a blind snipe, and know 

 better, than to raise a family row and be hit 

 on the head with a stone for calling it a 

 woodcock. 



The little woodcocks, though scarcely big- 

 ger than bumblebees, run about hardily, like 

 young partridges, the moment they chip the 

 shell, and begin at once to learn from the 

 mother where to look for food. In the early 

 twilight, when they are less wild and the 

 mother is not so quick to flutter away and 

 draw you after her, I have sometimes sur- 

 prised a brood of them, wee, downy, invis- 

 ible things, each with a comically long bill 

 and a stripe down his back that seems to 

 divide the little fellow and hide one half of 

 him even after you have discovered the other. 

 The mother is with them, and leads them 

 swiftly among the bogs and ferns and alder 

 stems, where they go about turning over the 

 dead leaves and twigs and shreds of wet 

 bark with their bills for the grubs that hide 



