104 C. H. Merriata — Birds of Coinectlcut. 



Family, SCOLOPACID^:. 



1 86. Philohela minor (Gmelin) Gray. Woodcock. 



A resident ; common from early spring till November. A tew 

 commonly, if not regularly, winter in low swamps. They arrive early 

 in March ("Mar. 8, 1877, Middletown, Conn., killed by flying against 

 a telegraph wire"*), and breed very early. On the 3d of April, 1877, 

 mv young friend, Walter R. Nichols, found, near Branford, Conn., a 

 nest containing four fresh eggs. They may breed twice, for Mr. 

 Nichols found a second nest, in the same locality, and containing the 

 same number of eggs, as late as July 20th, 1877. The eggs were 

 partially incubated, and the old bird was shot as she left the nest. 

 Mr. W. W. Coe writes that he found one, near Portland, Conn., April 

 12, 1872, also containing four eggs: "The nest was on a bog, in the 

 middle of a brook which ran through a swamp. It was not more than 

 six inches above the water. The grass was short, aiid there were no 

 bushes near, so that it was very much exposed, but still hard to And, 

 for, although we had hunted the ground over carefully, the old bird 

 did not fly oft" until my man stepped on the bog. I had my old dog 

 Dincks with me, and his nose is first class, and yet he passed within 

 a foot of her several times without scenting her, which satisfies me 

 that a bird sitting on her eggs gives out no scent, for this is not the 

 first time I have tried it. The nest was simply a shallow hole scraped 

 in the top of the bog ; there was a little coarse grass, a few leaves, and 

 one or two of the Woodcock's feathers in it."f Mr. John H. Sage 

 tells me that, while collecting with iMr. W. W. Coe near Portland, 

 Conn., May 80th, 1874, they flushed a Woodcock with young, one of 

 which she carried ofl* in her claws ! and Mr. Coe writes me, " in regard 

 to the Woodcock carrying off" its young : Mr. Sage and I were not 

 four feet apart when the old bird got up between us, rose about thi-ee 

 feet, and then dove down again and picked up a young bird Avith her 

 feet, and, with her tail spread and held forward under the young, 

 carried it off about eight rods, and came back for the others, but my 

 boy frightened her away." 



Thomas Morton, in 1632, thus alluded to the resemblance between 

 our l)ird and the Ya\\'o\)C'a\\V^ oodidock {Scolopaxrusticola) '. " Simpes, 

 there are like our Sim[)es in all respects, with very little difference. 

 I have shot at them onely, to see what diftl-rence I could finde be- 



* MS. notes of John 11. Sage. f MS. notes of W. W. Coe. 



