THE WOODCOCK 253 



teen inches, and in weight is from five and one-half to 

 nine ounces. A full-grown cock will weigh as much 

 as nine ounces. Compared with the snipe the wood- 

 cock is heavier and stouter, and is more stocky in ap- 

 pearance. The sexes are alike in color and markings, 

 but the female is always the larger. 



The technical Greek name {Philohela) indicates that 

 the woodcock is a swamp-lover, and the Latin word 

 (minor) was added to indicate that he is smaller than 

 the European woodcock, which he much resembles. 



The woodcock is distinctly a bird of the wet wood- 

 lands. He is often found, however, on wooded hill- 

 sides and high up in the mountains. Trumbull says 

 he is known to the darkies about Matthews Court- 

 house, Virginia, as mountain partridge; and though 

 we commonly associate woodcock with bogs and low- 

 lying land, we must not forget the good shooting we 

 have had sometimes higher up, nor the fact that many 

 of these birds retire for a time to the hill-tops each 

 year. Mr. George B. Sennett saw a pair of these birds 

 on the summit of Roan (North Carolina) in a clump of 

 balsams at an altitude of fully six thousand feet. (The 

 Auk, July, 1887.) 



The woodcock arrive in the Northern States in 

 March, some as early as February. The courtship 

 begins in April, and the male bird may then be seen 

 dancing about in the bog with elevated tail before his 

 admiring mate, and singing his love song, which has 

 been described as a nasal squeak. After singing for a 

 time he soars aloft on whistling wings and shortly 

 drops with great suddenness on the spot from whence 

 he flew. Edwin Kent is my authority for the state- 



