174 



THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



Mimicry in the Nesting of the 

 American Woodcock. 



UPON reading Mr. ligbert Bagjf's allu- 

 sion to the "close sitting" of the 

 Woodcock, in his very interesting 

 article in the December Xidiologist, page 

 55. I write a few notes upon nests of this 

 species observed bj' myself in 1893, that 

 none of 3'our readers may receive the im- 

 pression that every Woodcock found sitting 

 upon her nest may be handled with im- 

 punity by intruding mankind. 



On May 6, Prof. Charles F. Wheeler, 

 consulting botanist at the Michigan Agri- 

 cultural College, in Ingham county, during 

 one of his energetic rambles in search of 

 plants, almost stepped upon the nest of a 

 Woodcock before the bird was flushed. 

 The nest was situated about one half mile 

 from college, in a low piece of woodland 

 bordering a damp, though not flooded, 

 swamp. The old bird, curiously enough, 

 had selected for her nesting site an open 

 spot where some fallen boughs had partially 

 decayed, and within five feet of a picket 

 fence enclosing an open pasture field. 

 Opposite her, on the other side, were ash, 

 elm. oak and other trees, of no considerable 

 size, and round about were many frost-dried 

 stems of aster and golden-rod, interspersed 

 with the fallen leaves of the previous sum- 

 mer. Little of green was near. Though 

 seemingly exposed, perhaps no better place 

 could have been selected by this wary bird, 

 for protection from view, through mimicry 

 of surroundings. Prof. Wheeler found the 

 nest to contain three eggs, one of which he 

 brought to me with the news of his inter- 

 esting discovery. Next day we visited the 

 nest with a friend, who took with him his 

 camera, and though I regret that he had 

 not the plates for taking a larger negative, 

 a very good picture was obtained, a repro- 

 duction of which appears with this article. 



This photograph may prove a conundrum 

 to many for a time, but will, I trust, im- 

 press upon the minds of all the potency of 



the great power of mimicry, in the protec- 

 tion against birds of prey, etc., of species 

 nesting upon the ground. The Woodcock 

 undoubtedly sticks to her nest so long be- 

 cause she trusts to this mimicry and knows 

 it to be her only chance to save her nest. 

 Upon this visit one more egg was found in 

 the nest. On the next morning no more 

 eggs had been deposited, so I took the re- 

 maining three, and now have the set of four 

 in my collection. At the most this bird 

 would only allow me to walk within a foot 

 and a half of her nest, in a careless manner, 

 but if I stopped or gazed intently at her as 

 I walked, she would suddenly fly for a short 

 distance and then drop as though dead 

 among the herbage in the oft- told manner 

 peculiar to this species. When the ex- 

 posure was made the camera was tipped 

 forward to within two feet of the bird with- 

 out driving her away. Within two weeks 

 a second nest was found, probably of the 

 same pair of birds, within a few rods of the 

 first one, and this time they were allowed 

 to rear their young in wildness and in 

 peace. 



On May 20 a nest was found by mvself 

 in the heavy timber occupying what is 

 known as the "bottom lands" of the River 

 Raisin, in Washtenaw county, about five 

 miles from Manchester. This nest was in 

 heavy timber, and within a few feet of a 

 reed-bordered, springy spot about forty rods 

 from the river. I was surpri.sed to find a 

 nest of the Oven Bird, Seiiinis cxurocapillus, 

 within two feet of that of the Woodcock, 

 and it was to all appearances a happy 

 neighborhood. In the nest of the latter 

 were two pipped eggs, which were covered 

 by the old bird until I w^as within about 

 two rods, when she half flew, half ran 

 away, acting the broken wing episode in a 

 manner which would put to shame the 

 human artists of the stage. In the nest 

 beside the two eggs in which the baby 

 Woodcock were loudly pecking and prying 

 for admittance into this world, were two 

 empty egg-shells, more or le.ss in frag- 



