174 lewis's AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



would be the constant labor of one person to procure such food for 

 two or three woodcocks. The diflficulty of procuring a sufficiency 

 of such precarious aliment determined us to try if bread and milk 

 would not be a good substitute ; and we found that by putting clean 

 washed worms into the mess, the bird soon acquired a taste for 

 this new food, and will now eat a basin of bread and milk in 

 twenty-four hours besides the worms it can procure." 



We quote these remarks in support of our assertion as to tne 

 voracity of these birds, and also for the information of any one 

 who may have a fancy to keep one of them, either as a pet, or for 

 the more laudable purpose of observing its habits. This singular 

 voracity on the part of woodcocks is no doubt one' of the principal 

 causes of the unsocial and solitary lives which the whole species 

 seem to prefer, as no one spot, however rich in worms or larvae, is 

 capable of producing sufficient food for any length of time for 

 more than one of these greedy cormorants. 



INCUBATION. 



Woodcocks begin laying in April, sometimes much earlier : the 

 nest is formed in a very artless manner, generally composed of a 

 few dried leaves or small portions of grass, and situated at the foot 

 of an old stump or tussock, within a copse or thick wood. It 

 usually contains three, four, or five brown-spotted eggs, over an 

 inch long. The period of incubation is about the same time with 

 the partridge — three weeks ; and the young leave the nest a short 

 .time after escaping from the shell, but are not by any means as 

 expert at running as young partridges, it being no uncommon cir- 

 cumstance to catch young cocks, but very difficult, on the other 

 hand, to make captive a young partridge, even when only a day 

 or two old. 



At this season of the year the male bird is said to perform, at 

 times, more particularly about early dawn, some very singular 

 manoeuvres: rising by a kind of spiral course to a considerable 

 height in the air, uttering a sudden or sharp "quack," till, having 

 gained his utmost elevation, he hovers round in a wide, irregular 



V 



