38 THE OOLOGIST 
Notes on the American Woodcock. 
Phiolela Minor. 
My recollections of the Woodcock, 
the pride of every true sportsman date 
way back. In the ’50’s and ’60’s our 
laws allowed the shooting of the Wood- 
cock from the 4th of July, and many a 
good bag was brought to town, It 
is really a wonder that this game bird 
has not been entirely exterminated. 
My first find of those beautiful eggs 
was accidental. Being out on a tramp 
having been subjected to the rays of 
the sun, look as bright as if they had 
been taken last year. 
The Woodcock is a fairly common 
summer resident near Buffalo, arrives 
from the south the third or fourth 
week of March, and is next to the 
Horned Lark, Great Horned Owl and 
Migrant Shrike, one of the early 
breeders. The nesting site is frequent- 
ly chosen among bushes and second 
growth in pastures or along the edge 
Woodcock on Nest 
for beetles, I stumbled, I might say, 
on a deserted nest of Woodcock with 
three eggs on the edge of a snowbank 
in the present Forest Lawn Cemetery. 
The feathers of the Woodcock were 
strewn along the ground near the nest, 
suggesting the idea that the parent 
bird had been the victim of an Owl. 
This was the 16th of April 1864. I 
harbor this end blown set in my col- 
lection as a treasure. The eggs not 
of the woods. It is often placed at 
the root of a bush or beside a log and 
is a mere depression in the ground, 
lined with a few dry leaves and 
grasses. The compliment of eggs is 
four, I have in my collection a set 
of five, found the second week in 
April. The eggs vary greatly in size 
and coloring. I have them from 1.47 
XK D2 to EG hiex “ioe he color ia 
brownish clay to huff, or more gray- 
