THE WOODCOCK 



287 



grasping organ of great sensibility. (Fig. 3.) But the manner of its 

 use and the nature of the mechanism can best be understood when 

 studied in relation to the bird's feeding habits, and accordingly 

 these points will be referred to again in describing the mode of 

 feeding in the woodcock. 



Let us pass now to the consideration of these birds as living 

 organisms, in relation to that environment which we believe has 



Fig. 3. WOODCOCK. 



governed both their coloration and their more deep-seated structural 

 peculiarities. 



THE WOODCOCK 

 [W. P. PYCRAFT] 



As we have just remarked, the differences of coloration which 

 obtain between the woodcock and the snipe are correlated with 

 differences of habitat. The woodcock shows a marked preference for 

 woods and coppices. Here, amid an undergrowth of bracken and 

 bramble rising above a carpet of dead leaves, oak, beech and birch, 

 or alder and hazel, or squatting on a bed of pine-needles, it rests by 

 day, and here it broods its eggs. On bright warm days in winter, 

 however, it loves to exchange the shade of the covert for the sunny 

 side of a bank, which forms the boundary of the wood, and especially 

 if this be planted with holly or laurel. Woods and coppice, however, 

 are by no means indispensable to the well-being of this bird, for it will 



