WOODCOCK 13 



slight depression was found, appearing somewhat 

 dirtier than the otherwise clean snow. 



"We were beginning to think that the bird had taken 

 this place in a small clump of bushes as a refuge from 

 the snow storms, when it was suggested that perhaps 

 after all the nest might be under the hard frozen snow. 

 This was no sooner suggested than we were down on 

 our knees, taking turns at melting the snow with our 

 breath. After a few minutes we were rewarded by 

 the sight of one egg, and, continuing our efforts, we 

 found a fine set of four eggs, the first lying directly 

 in the middle and on top of the three other eggs and 

 being separated from them by a layer of at least an 

 inch of snow. From this I take it that when the 

 first snow storm came, the bird had laid only three 

 eggs and found difficulty in keeping on them for any 

 great length of time. The woodcock lives on worms 

 from soft, marshy ground, and, consequently, she 

 could not remain a long time on the eggs, or, possibly, 

 the large amount of falling snow made the bird con- 

 tinually shift her position until, by this constant mov- 

 ing, the eggs were covered with snow; then the next 

 day the other egg was deposited as before mentioned. 

 After this the second snowfall occurred, which the 

 bird could not withstand, and so finally deserted nest 

 and eggs. We found several more nests in the same 

 way on that day, and in each case the eggs were found 

 as described." 



Mr. Reinecke records the finding in April, 1901, of 

 five eggs in a woodcock's nest on which the bird was 



