214 



Life and Immortality. 



AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 

 Mother Flying Away With Young Between Her Feet. 



turns to the task of sitting until success has crowned their 

 willing labors. The time spent in hatching is, under the most 

 favorable conditions, from seventeen to eighteen days. 



The young are very timid creatures and keep close to 

 their parents. Considerable solicitude is shown by the latter 

 for their well-being. Their helpless infancy, so to speak, is 

 watched over with all the care that a human mother bestows 

 upon her offspring, and when their lives are endangered re- 

 course is had to many a ruse to deceive their enemies and 

 bring them into places of security. When severely pressed 

 by foes, the mother, by a peculiar alarm, warns them of the 

 state of things, and while they are scattering in different 

 directions seeks to attract attention to herself in many a 

 well-feigned artifice. In her anxiety for their safety, she has 



