WOODCOCK SHOOTING. Ill 



able to shoot or trap it. It has a shrill scream; 

 is between the size of a sparrow-hawk and the 

 falco columbarius, and is exceedingly watchful 

 and wary. It often visits the orchard and the 

 vicinity of the barn-yard early in the morning to 

 carry off young chickens. We have several times 

 seen it swoop down from the topmost branch of 

 a tree and seize a woodcock, and have spent 

 hours in the woods on foot and on horseback fol- 

 lowing its cry in vain endeavor to shoot it, or to 

 discover its nest. A son of the farmer informed 

 us that he had twice found the latter near the 

 top of very tall trees ; in each case the young 

 birds had flown, and the bottom of the nest was 

 covered with the bones and other remains of va- 

 rious small birds. Its cry is heard in the deepest 

 part of the woods, at all hours of the day ; its tail 

 is barred with white ; but wiiether it is the falco 

 velox of Wilson or no, we are unable to say. 



We certainly never felt inclined to doubt the 

 accuracy of Audubon's remark that the wood- 

 cock never feeds on salt marshes, until last sum- 

 mer, when we were requested by one of a party 

 of four at supper, to taste a portion of a bird, 

 which we did in turn, and all agreed that it was 

 decidedly sedgy. This bird was one of eighteen 

 which had been killed in a meadow below 



