WOODCOCK 86 



Nov. 21, 1857. Just above the grape-hung birches, 

 my attention was drawn to a singular-looking dry leaf 

 or parcel of leaves on the shore about a rod off. Then I 

 thought it might be the dry and yellowed skeleton of a 

 bird with all its ribs ; then the shell of a turtle, or possibly 

 some large dry oak leaves peculiarly curved and cut ; and 

 then, all at once, I saw that it was a woodcock, perfectly 

 still, with its head drawn in, standing on its great pink 

 feet. I had, apparently, noticed only the yellowish-brown 

 portions of the plumage, referring the dark-brown to 

 the shore behind it. May it not be that the yellowish- 

 brown markings of the bird correspond somewhat to its 

 skeleton? At any rate with my eye steadily on it from 

 a point within a rod, I did not for a considerable time 

 suspect it to be a living creature. Examining the shore 

 after it had flown with a whistling flight, I saw that 

 there was a clear space of mud between the water and 

 the edge of ice-crystals about two inches wide, melted 

 so far by the lapse of the water, and all along the edge of 

 the ice, for a rod or two at least, there was a hole where 

 it had thrust its bill down, probing, every half-inch, fre- 

 quently closer. Some animal life must be collected at 

 that depth just in that narrow space, savory morsels for 

 this bird. 



I was paddling along slowly, on the lookout for what 

 was to be seen, when my attention was caught by a 

 strange-looking leaf or bunch of leaves on the shore, close 

 to the water's edge, a rod distant. I thought to myself, I 

 may as well investigate that, and so pushed slowly toward 

 it, my eyes resting on it all the while. It then looked like 

 a small shipwrecked hulk and, strange to say, like the 



