422 GAME-BIRDS. 



it is asserted that the old birds frequently carry their young 

 thither in their bills.* Their food now consists of various 

 earth-worms, which they obtain by probing the ground with 

 their bills, evidence of which may often be found, usually in 

 soft, black ground. Their borings are certain signs, which 

 are eagerly looked for by the sportsman. They also glean 

 among decaying leaves and logs, and in low, moist, vegetable 

 growth ; but from a peculiarity of structure or habit, their 

 soft animal food is so compressed and macerated in the swal- 

 lowing that the species eaten becomes indistinguishable, even 

 when the bird is shot just after eating. Rich, soft earth, 

 running water, and abundant shelter, are the most usual and 

 certain conditions for a summer cover. 



The young birds mature very rapidly, but are usually only 

 two thirds grown in July. From the fact that often neither 

 parent, or at most only one of them, is to be found with 

 the young in their summer cover, and that birds only half 

 grown are frequently shot in September or late in October, 

 it may be inferred that two broods are raised in a season. f It 

 is certain that a second set of eggs is laid, when those of the 

 first nest are destroyed, either by accident or by the common 

 vicissitudes of our climate, such as early snows, or long con- 

 tinued wet and cold. There are great differences in the pro- 

 ductiveness of different seasons. The writer recalls one within 

 a few years when there was a heavy snow-storm in the middle 

 of April, and afterwards floods caused by northeasterly rains ; 

 the same extensive grounds, over which he had been accus- 

 tomed to get three or four dozen birds in the course of July, 

 contained that year just seven old birds, while a large portion 

 of the few Woodcock found in September were mere fledg- 

 lings. Others made similar observations during the same 

 year. 



By the first of August a majority of the Woodcock desert 

 the low, wet grounds, and scatter themselves all over the coun- 



* The American as well as the Euro- t This opinion is not now generally 



pean Woodcock has been seen to rise sustained, nor does it seem to rest on 



and fly away with one of its young any very good evidence. W. B. 

 firmly held between its thighs. W. B. 



