106 Bird - Lore 
set so far back on the head that she appears to be looking behind her, and at times 
so intensely that she strikes against an obstacle, with the result that a portion 
of the head is sometimes bared where the feathers are torn from the scalp by 
thorn or brier. 
The weather may be balmy when the nest contains eggs, but severe storms 
of snow and sleet do not deter matters. The birds appear instinctively to know 
\ SS. . 
WOODCOCK ON NEST 
May 4, 1900 
how to arrange the duties of incubation, so the eggs hatch when climatic condi- 
tions are favorable for development of the young. 
The water in the marshes was lukewarm, and on the little slope bordering a 
swamp, mandrakes and mushrooms were bursting through the virgin soil. Sev- 
eral Whip-poor-wills were dozing on fallen boughs, and our pretty Yellow- 
breasted Sapsucker was tapping a fresh poplar. I sometimes think that the 
Woodcock sleeps with his eyes open, because I often detect them resting on their 
breast where the soil is soft and the warm sun generates considerable heat from 
the moist ground. 
By the willow copse another bird was sitting, a few hundred yards from the 
brush pile which contained the nest which we photographed. As I approached 
the willows, I noticed what I judged to be the male sitting on the nest, and, instead 
of making his exit in the usual Woodcock manner, he simply tumbled off the nest 
