474 NATURAL HISTORY. 



plated in the economy of these birds, for they are sure guides to the 

 sportsman in his search after game. 



The woodcock and the snipe may be regarded as the typical members 

 of the group, and hence will be treated first. Neither need any introduc- 

 tion, as both are pretty well distributed over the United States. In the 

 southern states the woodcock is resident the year round, but in the north. 

 though a few spend the winter, it is mostly a summer resident. It is 

 largely a nocturnal bird, and at nightfall it saunters out from the swamps 

 and woods and begins its real life. It mates at dusk, and in the early 

 evening the pairs may be seen in the air, going through the most eccentric 

 motions, mounting up and then suddenly darting down to earth. At night 

 it also searches for its food, and its peculiar note, chip-per, chip-per, chip, 

 or some of its ' bleating ' modifications, are welcome sounds to the sports- 

 man. From the gamy point of view the woodcock acts exactly as it ought 

 to act. When flushed by the dog it starts in the proper way, flies as it 

 ought to fly, and tumbles, when shot, in the most gratifying manner. A 

 change in habits would be of an advantage to the species, if not to the 

 sportsman. If it would only refuse to fly, or to stand still, but take to the 

 trees, or the dense underbrush, it would be much the better for it ; but 

 who can expect much of such a stupid-looking bird, with its eyes placed 

 far back where no intelligent bird would have them ? The snipe is an 

 equal favorite with the sportsman, and its habits are much the same, the 

 differences in flight being of such a character as to interest only the gunner. 

 With all the excitement of the sportsman — the bagging of game only for 

 the pleasure of bagging it ; the wounding of birds, which escape to the 

 swamps to die an agonizing death — the writer has not the slightest sym- 

 pathy. It is nothing but cruelty, unmitigated cruelty. And yet men will 

 go out, day after day, with gun and dog, and shoot birds so small that 

 twenty of them would not make a decent meal, and call the occupation 

 " sport." 



The subject of our next cut is a strange-looking, snipe-like bird, which 

 occasionally appears in the United States, but which is abundant in some 

 parts of the Old World. The most remarkable feature is the ruff about 

 the neck, from which the name of the bird is derived. This is only devel- 

 oped in the male bird at the breeding season, and seems to be of the nature 

 of armor, and of great use in the combats in which these birds indulge in 

 the breeding season. The ruff, unlike most of the snipe, is polygamous, 

 and each spring the males fight for the possession of the females of the 

 flock. Year after year they go to the same spot for these duels. Then the 

 males fly at each other, striving to strike with the long pointed bills, and 

 receiving the blows of the adversary on the collar of feathers, which is held 



