BIRDS OF NEW YORK 



299 



like a bird. If disturbed, he pops up, as if discharged from a catapult, to 

 the tops of the bushes ; then darts away in a horizontal course, and quickly 

 droits again among the bushes. The Woodcock's flight is rapid and accom- 

 panied by a whistling, whirring sound, but not so resonant as that of the 

 Grouse and Bobwhite. It lies well to the dog 

 and when hunted rarely leaves the locality 

 where it was startled. Thus the whole brood 

 is often secured by the sportsman and none 

 are left to repopulate the coverts. The wood- 

 cock's migratory habit has preserved it thus 

 far from extermination, but it sorely needs 

 the most efficient protection if it is to escape 

 the fate of the Heath hen, Wild turkey, and 

 Passenger pigeon. 



Woodcock begin to breed from the ist to 

 the loth of April, and the eggs are almost always 

 laid before the 2 5 th of thatmonth. Duringthc 

 mating season and until the period of incu- 

 bation is nearly finished, the cock performs 

 his peculiar song and aerial evolutions during 

 the early evening and often in the morning. 

 Springing from the ground, he ascends in a 

 spiral course, whistling or chippering or piping 

 as he mounts in the air until a considerable 

 hight is reached when he sweeps about in 

 wide circles and descends again, uttering all 

 the while a mellow and rapidly increasing 

 chipper, or warble, until the ground is reached, when he lowers his head and 

 cocks his tail and utters a harsh, nasal peenk, or blaik, accompanied with an 

 uncouth waving motion of the body. Then he looks about expectantly 

 and if his mate does not appear, the serenade is repeated, often as late as 

 9 or 10 o'clock in the evening. 



Nest and eggs uf woodcock. tlV.ni Bird-Lore^ 

 Photo by Tabor 



