254 SHORE BIRDS 



ment that farmer boys take advantage of the cock 

 when thus performing, and watch for the bird when 

 he leaves the ground, then run to the spot he left and 

 kill him with a switch when he drops to earth again. 



The nest is rudely constructed, usually on the leaves 

 on a dry spot in the wooded swamp. There are four 

 or five eggs, speckled buff in color; and should the nest 

 be destroyed by flood, the birds will usually nest a 

 second time. The young, like the young partridges, 

 are precocious in the extreme, and run about as soon 

 as they leave the shell. The woodcock has protective 

 markings, and the russet color harmonizes well with 

 the leaves; it is difficult to see the birds on the ground. 

 When the mother is alarmed, like the partridge she 

 warns her young to hide, and flutters away as if dis- 

 abled, inviting her enemy to follow her as she leads 

 him away from her young. Mr. Hills, of Hudson, 

 New York, sent me four remarkable photographs of 

 this bird and its nest. The pictures were made in the 

 town of Claverack, Columbia County, New York. Mr. 

 Hills says: "I found the nest June 24th, and secured 

 the pictures June 28th." After making one picture he 

 took a small stick and lifted up the bird's bill so that 

 it would show to better advantage. He then placed 

 the camera within eighteen inches of the bird, leaving 

 her bill resting on the stick, and for the fourth picture 

 he lifted the bird from the nest and photographed the 

 eggs. She returned to the nest soon after he left it. 

 He found the eggs not pecked on the morning of the 

 28th, but on the morning of the 30th, at nine o'clock, 

 she had hatched her young and they were gone. 



The woodcock feeds by boring. Its long flexible bill 



