The American II 'oodcock. 689 



a single note, somewhat like the ordinary call of the night-hawk. 

 This he continues for some time, and then suddenly pitches down- 

 ward from his height, and drops into cover. Here the female is 

 waiting for him, and about her he struts, with head thrown back, wings 

 trailing, and tail spread, — a parody on the turkey-cock of the farm- 

 yard. The nest is a rude structure of dead leaves and grass, and 

 is usually placed under a fence, or by a log in some thick swamp, 

 or perhaps on a tussock or bit of high ground in some alder run. 

 The eggs are generally four in number, and are of a dull cream color 

 marked with large spots of bright brown. As soon as the young 



rge from the egg, they leave the nest and follow the mother. 

 Thenceforward their development is rapid, and young birds have 

 been found well able to fly by April 10. Two broods are usually 

 reared in the Middle States. A curious habit of the woodcock, 

 which, though well attested, is as yet but little understood, is its 

 practice of carrying its young from place to place, apparently to 

 avoid danger. Exactly how the mother bird does this is, owing to 

 imperfect observation, as yet a question, but the weight of evidence 



s to show that she holds it clasped between her thighs, as a 

 rider does his horse, and does not carry it in her weak and slender 

 claws. She- will sometimes thus transport her young tor a hundred 

 yards or more, and if pursued will even make a second flight with it. 



By the last of July in favorable seasons the young of the second 

 hatching are quite fit to look out for themselves, and early in August 

 the woodcock disappear; that is to say, can no longer be found by 

 who search for them. In September they collect once more in 

 their accustomed haunts, and they are fat. in good plumage, and lit 

 for the ^ un . 



merly it was legal all over the country to kill this species 

 during the month of July, at which time many of the young were 

 ly able to fly, and when, after a late spring, some of the mother 

 birds were still brooding the eggs of their second hatching. This 

 practice, although often shown to be most pernicious, is still per- 

 mitted in some States, but is universally condemned by the better 

 of sportsmen. 



The coming together in September <>l th< birds which have been 

 ously hidden away, no one knows where, is often loo 

 spoken of as "the first flight," or. in other words, is regarded as the 

 44 



