WOODCOCK. 



QUITE as interesting in habits is the American Wood- 

 ^^ cock, the Philohela minor of Gray, which belongs to 

 the grallatorial, rather than to the natatorial, family of birds. 

 In distribution he is somewhat restricted, differing in this 

 respect from his numerous congeneric brethren, which have 

 a wide dispersion. He is chiefly a denizen of the eastern 

 parts of the United States, and of the British territory im- 

 mediately adjacent. Fort Rice, in north-western Dakota, 

 and Kansas and Nebraska in the West, appear to be the 

 limits of his range in these directions. In the Middle and 

 Eastern States Woodcocks are found in greater abundance 

 than anywhere else. While the bulk pass North to breed, 

 a few remain in the South and raise their happy little families 

 in spite of the ardor of the climate. 



Few migrants arrive earlier at their breeding-grounds. 

 They usually appear from the fifth to the tenth of March in 

 New England and the Middle Atlantic States, although 

 instances are recorded where they have been observed as 

 early as the twenty-fourth of Feburary. These cases are 

 rare, however, and only happen, if at all, when the weather 

 has been remarkably auspicious for a lengthy spell. As a 

 few birds have been known to winter in the North, when 

 the season has been unusually mild, their emergence from 

 sheltered localities so early might be construed by persons 

 not cognizant of their presence, or of their occasional winter 

 sojourn, as a case of recent arrival. In view of this fact, it 

 would be difficult to prove that a bird seen in winter had 

 just come from the South, unless discovered in transitu. 



