THE WOODCOCK 255 



is well supplied with nerves, and it searches for its food 

 by feeling for it. The food is chiefly earthworms, but 

 it also devours many insects which are found in the 

 damp woods, and has been seen to catch butterflies. 

 Audubon discovered that a woodcock devoured in a 

 single night more than its own weight in worms, and 

 some experiments recently made on a captive bird con- 

 firm his observations. Mr. Kent says one of his friends 

 kept a pair of woodcock in confinement for a few weeks 

 in one end of his greenhouse fitted up for their accom- 

 modation. Several large, shallow, wooden trays were 

 filled two or three inches deep with loose moistened 

 garden loam, in which was placed the supply of angle 

 worms. It required more of the gardener's time than 

 could well be spared to provide sufficient worms for 

 the birds, as the trays were cleaned out during the 

 night, and he eventually let the birds go. 



When feeding the woodcock stands for a moment 

 with his head on one side as if listening, then thrusts 

 the long bill into the earth and feels for a worm. The 

 bill is repeatedly withdrawn and thrust in again, now 

 an inch or more to the right, then to the left, or in 

 front or behind the first boring, until at last the worm 

 is struck and withdrawn. The pattern of holes left in 

 the mud indicates to the sportsman the presence of the 

 birds in the cover. I recently observed some snipe 

 boring in the Sandusky marshes, and it seemed to me 

 the bill thrusts were more rapid than those of the wood- 

 cock. The pattern made in the mud is similar. The 

 woodcock is a nocturnal bird and usually feeds and 

 flies by night. Although found in the woods and al- 

 ways remaining in brush or timber or cover of some 



