238 The Woodcock 



little time in making its nest, which consists simply 

 of a slight depression lined with leaves or grass. 

 Probably the wind had more to do with the collection 

 of the nesting material than did the mother bird, 

 and the shape of the nest is more largely due to the 

 pressure of the body than to any real arrangement 

 of the material. Here, in this carelessly constructed 

 home, the mother bird deposits four buff colored 

 eggs, spotted with brown or lavender; the situation 

 of the nest and the coloring of the bird and the eggs 

 form a most perfect example of protective colora- 

 tion. 



The woodcock, ordinarily a very wild bird, can 

 be easily approached during the period of incubation, 

 or before the young can fly. This may be accounted 

 for in the woodcock, and in other animals^ as well, 

 by the mother love, so strong in nearly all of them. 

 Even before the eggs are hatched the mother wood- 

 cock, in luring you away from the nest and eggs, 

 makes use of the same stratagem that she later em- 

 ploys in protecting her chicks. The ruse is this: 

 When the bird is flushed from her nest, she flutters 

 about as though one wing were disabled. Your first 

 impulse is the natural one; that is, to catch the bird. 

 You step forward, and as you are about to pick her 

 up, she flops just out of reach; one more effort on 



