THE AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 433 



bill ; occiput with three transverse bands of black, alternating with three others of 

 pale yellowish-rufous ; upper parts of body variegated with pale-ashy, rufous, or 

 yellowish-red of various shades, and black; large space in front, and throat, reddish- 

 ashy ; line from the eye to the bill, and another on the neck below the eye, brownish- 

 black; entire under parts pale-rufous, brighter on the sides and under wing coverts; 

 quills ashj'-brown ; tail feathers brownish-black, tipped with ashy, darker on the 

 upper surface, paler and frequently white on the under ; bill light-brown, paler and 

 yellowish at base ; legs pale-reddish ; iris brown. 



Total length, about eleven inches; wing, five and a quarter; tail, two and a 

 quarter ; bill, two and a quarter ; tarsus, one and a quarter inches. 



Hab. — Eastern North America. 



THE Woodcock is a common summer inhabitant of the 

 three southern New-England States, and is not rare in 

 most sections of the others. It is one of the earliest of our 

 spring arrivals ; appearing by the 10th of March, and some- 

 times much earlier, even before the 25th of February. 

 When it first arrives, it is partially gregarious ; being found 

 in small companies of four or five, in the area of a few 

 rods. It frequents low swampy woods and thickets at this 

 season, where, during the day, it remains concealed, only 

 moving about, in its search for food, in the night. 



It begins its nocturnal rambles by early twilight, and only 

 retires to its swamp at daybreak. If we stand, in the even- 

 ing, in the neighborhood of a swamp, or low tract of woods, 

 we sometimes hear two or three individuals moving about 

 in the undergrowth, uttering their note, chip-per, chip-per 

 chip, sometimes varying it to hleat or bleat ta hledt ta ; or 

 see them, against the evening sky, flying rapidly from one 

 swamp to another. About the first week in April, after 

 separating into pairs, the Woodcocks begin their duties of 

 incubation : the female scratches together a few leaves, on 

 a slight elevation in some meadow or swamp, and this forms 

 the nest, I have noticed that the locality most often selected 

 is in a small bunch of bushes, or small birches or alders, in 

 the midst of a meadow. The eggs are three or four in num- 

 ber : their ground -color is usually a rich creamy-drab, 

 sometimes with a slightly olive tint ; and they are marked, 

 more or less thickly, with coarse and fine spots and blotches 



