172 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



cies of larvae, which they find concealed under the leaves and turf 

 of the thickets, as well as in the open bogs. Some sportsmen 

 assert that when cocks are feeding they strike their long bills into 

 the soil, and then, raising their bodies high on their feet, they open 

 their wings and flutter round and round until they have sunk their 

 bills sufficiently far into the ground to reach their prey. We do 

 not know positively whether cocks perform these rather singular 

 gyrations, or, more artistically speaking, "pirouettes," but must 

 confess that we are rather dubious on the subject, as, with our 

 liberal opportunities of observing the habits of game-birds, we 

 have never yet been able to discover a woodcock thus employed, 

 although on one occasion in particular we watched a couple feeding 

 for more than an hour, and only noticed them dexterously turn 

 over the withered leaves, and every now and then probe, with the 

 greatest facility, the rich loamy soil with their long slender bills. 

 We are inclined to believe that this report of the feeding of the 

 woodcock is more the result of imagination than of actual observa- 

 tion, like many other vulgar errors respecting natural history. It 

 is possible, however, that these birds might be tempted to resort to 

 some such process as the above to enable them to bury their 

 slender bills deep into the earth in some particular spots where 

 the soil is extremely dry ; but, unfortunately for the support even 

 of this hypothesis, woodcocks are never found in such places, and 

 even if they were, they could not hope to extract from such a soil 

 their usual food, no matter how deep their pirouetting might enable 

 them to bore. We would, however prefer abandoning entirely this 

 fanciful idea, and should not perhaps have given it as much 

 attention as we already have, had we not found the subject re- 

 ferred to by a very respectable writer of our country, who seems, 

 from his remarks, to give some credence to the report.* 



The American cock, without doubt, feeds in the same way 

 as the European variety, and which is minutely described by a 

 close observer, who had a fair opportunity of studying the habits 



* We refer to the remarks of J. S. Skinner, Esq., on this head. 



