262 SHORE BIRDS 



writers insist there is a migration, some say the birds 

 go to the hills, others believe the birds resort to the 

 standing corn. That the disappearance occurs there 

 can be no doubt, but there seems to be much doubt as 

 to the cause of it, and the place resorted to. 



The disappearance was once referred to in Outing 

 (September, 1892) as " the mystery of the wood- 

 cock's life." My own observations lead me to be- 

 lieve that it is not the knowledge that the loss of the 

 feathers renders them to a certain extent helpless, 

 which induces them to leave the swamps, but the fact 

 that the food becomes exhausted. 



When we recall that a woodcock will eat more than 

 his weight in angle-worms in a night, and consider 

 that each cock has his mate and four or five young, 

 with the proverbial appetite of youth, it seems reason- 

 able to believe that the food supply gives out on the 

 breeding grounds, which are often quite limited in ex- 

 tent. As the dry season comes on the boring area is 

 much restricted, since the flexible bill can only be used 

 in soft, moist earth. About the old mill-race in Ohio 

 where I had an opportunity to notice the disappear- 

 ance of the birds, I observed that the ground, as the 

 season progressed, was bored literally full of holes in 

 all places where boring was possible. The race, and a 

 creek which carried its waters to the river, flowed 

 through a low strip of land between hills or high ter- 

 races, leading to the fields above. The entire ground 

 was not over a mile in extent, and the boring area was 

 quite narrow, and in places where there were deposits 

 of lime-stones, of course there was none. Early in the 

 season the terraces or hill-sides were sufficiently moist 



