WOODCOCK 15 



Twenty years ago there was much discussion as to 

 the manner in which the startled woodcock produces 

 the whistling sound usually heard as it springs from 

 the ground. The ranks of sportsmen were divided 

 into two factions, one of which held that the whistle 

 was vocal, while the other was as firmly convinced 

 that it was produced by the wings. 



Oddly enough, able ornithologists, who were also 

 sportsmen, were divided on the question and are 

 probably still divided, for the matter has never been 

 satisfactorily settled. Such distinguished men as 

 William Brewster, of Cambridge, and the late Gur- 

 don Trumbull, of Hartford, whose "Names and Por- 

 traits of Birds Which Interest Gunners" will always 

 be remembered, took opposite sides on this question 

 and argued at length about it. The ever-increasing 

 scarcity of the woodcock and consequent inability to 

 observe it put an end to the discussion. 



Formerly it was legal all over the country to kill this 

 species during the month of July, at which time many 

 of the young were barely able to fly, and when, after 

 a late spring, some of the mother birds were even 

 still brooding the eggs of their second hatching. This 

 practice was most pernicious and is no longer per- 

 mitted in most States. 



The coming together in September of the birds 

 which have been mysteriously hidden away, no one 

 knows where, is often loosely spoken of as "the first 

 flight" in other words, is regarded as the beginning 

 of the southward migration. It is, however, nothing 



