WOODCHUCK 



6351 



WOODEN HORSE 



and private houses of Cairo, Damascus and 

 other Oriental cities are adorned with elaborate 

 and minutely-wrought woodwork. The Chinese 

 and Japanese also have produced wood carv- 

 ings of great merit. 



Manual skill, as well as an artistic sense, is 

 essential to success in this art. The worker 

 must have a knowledge of the shapes and uses 

 of tools, and must put this knowledge to prac- 

 tical use in attaining artistic results. All of the 

 finest wood carvings are executed by hand, and 

 the woods in general use are oak, Italian and 

 American walnut, lime, holly, pearwood, chest- 

 nut and mahogany. Wood for carving should 

 be well seasoned, and it is essential that the 

 natural sap be dried out to prevent it from 

 rotting. The finishing depends much upon the 

 wood used. Since so much of present-day orna- 

 mental woodwork is now made by machinery, 

 this art, so rich in possibilities, has become one 

 of comparatively small consequence. See CARV- 

 ING. R.D.M. 



Consult Rowe's Practical Wood Carving; Mas- 

 kell's Wood Sculpture. 



WOOD 'CHUCK. See GROUND Hoc. 



WOOD 'COCK, a group of birds belonging to 

 the snipe family. The American woodcock 

 breeds in the Northern United States and 

 Canada, wintering in the South Atlantic and 

 Gulf states. It is an early migrant, appearing 



Tin: WOODCOCK 



in its northern home the first of March. It 

 makes a nest of dry leaves on the ground in 

 the woods. The eggs are four in number, of a 

 buffy color, marked with reddish-brown. Thia 

 woodcock frequents com lands Dear woods, 

 where it finds soft, moist faith m which to 

 probe for the earthworms that comprise its en- 

 tin- fare, a single bird devouring as many as 

 half a pound of worms in twenty-four hours. 

 Groups of holes, or borings, from \\hu-h tin 

 woodcock has drawn earthworms, are a sure in- 



dication of its presence. It is a night bird, hid- 

 ing during the day among leaves and gra- 

 where its wood-brown plumage, barred and 

 mottled with black, protects it from discovery. 

 If disturbed, it escapes with an uncertain, owl- 

 like flight, and if the young are near, may feign 

 lameness. It has also been known to carry 

 away its young, one by one, holding them 

 firmly between its thighs. 



The European woodcock is a larger bird, and 

 has been hunted as game until its numbers 

 have greatly decreased. A small, dark-colored 

 woodcock is found in Java and New Guinea. 



WOOD ENGRAVING, en gray v' ing. Engrav- 

 ing (which see) is the art of cutting designs on 

 a hard surface. Wood engravings are made to 

 be employed on printing presses, like type, to 

 reproduce in print the picture of the object en- 

 graved. They are made on Turkish boxwood, 

 the hardest variety of wood known, and the 

 one which has the most regular grain. The 

 work is 1 done on the end of the grain, the wood 

 being sawed crosswise. Engraving tools, known 

 as gravers, include tint tools, employed for cut- 

 ting mechanical lines; lozenge tools, used for 

 artistic lines; elliptical tools and gouv 



The design which is to be reproduced is 

 sometimes sketched on the smoothed block of 

 wood, and sometimes it is photographed on it. 

 The engraver then cuts out the pattern, form- 

 ing it on the surface of the wood by means of 

 raised lines and dots. That is, the design is 

 left in projection, and the background is cut 

 away or lowered. The ink by which the pat- 

 tern is transferred to the print paper is applied 

 to the projections, in contrast with the pro- 

 cedure in line engraving, in which the ink is 

 applied to the grooves (see page 2058). An en- 

 graved wood block gives the printer a sin 

 similar to that of a page of type, and this is 

 also true of the electrotype made from the 

 wood engraving. 



WOOD'EN HORSE, Tm: Alt,, the Trojan 

 War had gone on for ten years, it became clear 

 to the Greeks that if they were to take Troy, 

 it must be through stratagem and not through 

 force, and the wily Ulysses was called upon to 

 furnish a plan. On his ad\ i.v the Greeks built 

 a huge wooden horse, wind) they filled with 

 Greek warriors and left upon the plains before 

 Troy. Then the army took to their diips an. I 

 hid themselves behind an island, out of sight 

 of ih -ity. Hi- Trojans, finding the large and 

 curious object, fell int.. \iol.nt discussion as 

 to \\h th. r <>r not it should be taken into the 

 re induced by the disaster which 



