THE AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 



peculiarities I will, so far as memory serves me, 

 attempt to describe, for the benefit of the young 

 sportsman. Length, from point of bill to end of tail, 

 11 to 12 inches ; across the wings, 9J inches ; weight 

 from 6 to 7 ozs. The females generally exceed these 

 measurements by about 1-10. In shape they much 

 resemble the Wilson snipe (Scolopax Wilsoni), only 

 they are more round and compact, the eye larger and 

 more prominent, and wings shorter but fuller. In 

 colour the bill is a yellowish brown ; legs and feet of a 

 pinkish flesh colour ; claws dark olive or brown ; iris, 

 brown; forehead, dirty yellow, with two black bar* 

 across the back of the head, and two narrow ones in 

 front on the neck, a finely-pencilled dark line running 

 the whole length of the head, the eye dividing it into 

 two parts, with another similar line underneath, and 

 marking the termination of the lower mandible. Three 

 broad bands of brownish-black pass lengthways and 

 parallel from the shoulder to the tail, divided from 

 one another by a narrow line of bluish grey. The 

 stomach and breast are of a warm fawn colour, 

 becoming deeper in shade as it approaches the tail 

 and termination of the wings. 



This description, I am aware, is far from perfect, or 

 such as the naturalist would demand ; still, I think it 

 is sufficiently clear to enable the novice to distinguish 

 what he has got when the first American woodcock 

 falls to his companionable gun. Although this bird 

 resembles, in many respects, the snipe, in point of 

 character it is essentially different. For instance, 

 snipe will, in the middle of the day, without any 

 perceptible reason, be seen taking long and erratic 

 flights, ascending so high that the keenest sight fails 



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