102 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



versing with a farmer who was engaged in har- 

 rowing corn, a cock suddenly flew out of a woods 

 and alit in a furrow close to the horses, who were 

 standing still at the moment. The bird did not 

 appear to notice us, but drooping its wings and 

 inverting its feathers, stuck its bill in the ground 

 several times as in the act of boring ; before we 

 had an opportunity of noticing it further, the rat- 

 tling of the gears, caused by a movement of one 

 of the horses, startled it, and with a shrill cry it 

 flew back to the woods. Some rain had fallen 

 the night previous, and the soil was wet to the 

 depth of an inch or more ; the corn was still 

 short, and from our position on the fence we 

 could distinctly see the bird. Whether our pre- 

 sence had any thing to do with its actions we can- 

 not say ; possibly, if it had remained a few mo- 

 ments something might have followed to eluci- 

 date the mystery.* 



Woodcock shooting in the immediate vicinity 

 of Philadelphia, like snipe shooting, has declined 

 within a few years and from similar causes, but 

 not to the same extent. Great numbers of birds 

 are still shot in the months of June and July 



* Woodcocks are sometimes seen boring into decayed stumps for 

 wood-worms. We once saw a bird thus engaged in the crotch of a 

 lead willow tree. 



