232 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



weight from six to seven ounces. The females generally 

 exceed these measurements by about one in ten. In shape 

 they much resemble the Wilson snipe (Scolopax Wilsoni), 

 only they are more round and compact, the eye larger and 

 more prominent, and wings shorter but fuller. In color the 

 bill is a yellowish brown ; legs and feet of a pinkish flesh 

 color ; claws, dark olive or brown ; iris, brown ; forehead, 

 dirty yellow, with two black bars across the back of the 

 head, and two narrow ones in front on the neck, a finely- 

 penciled dark line running the whole length of the head, the 

 eye dividing it into two parts, with another similar line un- 

 derneath, and marking the termination of the lower mandi- 

 ble. Three broad bands of brownish black pass lengthways 

 and parallel from the shoulder to the tail, divided from one 

 another by a narrow line of bluish gray. The stomach and 

 breast are of a warm fawn color, becoming deeper in shade 

 as it approaches the tail and termination of the wings. 



This description, I am aware, is far from perfect, or such 

 as the naturalist would demand ; still, I think it is suffi- 

 ciently clear to enable the novice to distinguish what he 

 has got when the first American woodcock falls to his com- 

 panionable gun.* Although this bird resembles, in many 

 respects, the snipe, in point of character it is essentially 

 different. For instance, snipe will, in the middle of the 

 day, without any perceptible reason, be seen taking long 

 and erratic flights, ascending so high that the keenest sight 

 fails to trace their course, and again wheeling about in the 

 heavens, as if they were creatures of extraordinary moment- 

 ary impulses ; one instant with speed dashing off to the 

 right, and in the next moment returning with equal veloc-' 

 ity. Not so with woodcock ; they very seldom take flight 

 during the glare of daylight unless disturbed, and then it 

 is short, and only suflicient to avoid, if possible, the in- 

 truder a second time disturbing their privacy. When on 



