Apr. 1907] PROCEEDINGS s. I. ass'n arts and sciences. 115 



stages of their spirals, while others could be heard buzzing on the 

 ground. In no case was I able to discover a female near the spot from 

 which a male had just flown, although, in one instance, while I re- 

 mained very still, a male buzzed, flew into the air, returned to the same 

 place and started buzzing again. This it repeated several times until I 

 interrupted it, whereupon it came down some 50 yards away. While 

 standing in another part of the swamp, I heard a bird in the descend- 

 ing stage of its performance almost directly over my head. Looking 

 up, I sighted it, and strange to say, it seemed not to see me but lit 20 

 or 30 feet away and started to buzz. In another instance I fired a 25 

 calibre rifle at one when it was half way up, but neither the sound nor 

 the ball showed any effect upon it, for it proceeded as before. 



March 26. — I heard several woodcocks buzzing at half past six p. m. 

 and tried the experiment with the rifle again. This time no birds 

 were in the air when I fired, and the sound had the effect of quieting 

 every buzz in the neighborhood. For 20 minutes I waited, and none 

 started up again. Later, I heard two at eight o'clock p. m. 



March 27. — Again I listened to the woodcock. One flew so close to 

 me that I could see its long bill. It carried the bill with the tip point- 

 ing toward the ground almost at right angles with the body. 



April II. — At half past six p. m., I made my way toward the 

 woodcock district, and could hear the birds when several hundred feet 

 away. Watching one bird in particulai, I decided to count the number 

 of noises made by it each each time before flying into the air. I noticed 

 that it returned to almost the same spot after going into the air; so, 

 when it left the ground the next time, I ran to the place where I 

 thought it would be likely to alight, and lay on the ground. Down it 

 came and fluttered to the earth not fifteen feet away, beginning almost 

 at once to buzz. 



Some days before, Mr. James Chapin had told me that he was of the 

 opinion that the woodcock makes an additional sound just preceding 

 each buzz, and I found that this is quite so. It resembles very much 

 a hiccough, and indicates, I think, that it is an effort for the bird to 

 make this buzzing noise, for sometimes the hiccough is to be heard with 

 no buzz following. 



The bird to which I listened buzzed 16 times and then flew off- 

 Returning, it increased the number to 23; the next was 33; then 45; 

 then it came back and buzzed only 25; and the last time that I counted 

 it buzzed 80 times before leaving the ground, and took three and one- 

 half minutes to d(» it in. I might add that I counted 7 hiccoughs that 



