AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. ^^ 89 



to, which had been anticipated, as her position when first found was 

 such. 



The situation was entirely novel to me; I had been as near to live 

 Woodcock before but this was the first time that I had ever watched one 

 from a short distance while she was unaware of my presence. She was 

 actually only five feet away, and by the use of binoculars she was shown 

 as though only a foot from my eyes. Her plumage could be examined 

 as minutely as though in the hand, while her soft, dark brown eyes, as 

 she turned her head from side to side, looked as though they could 

 speak. 



For some time after settling down to her duties her head was contin- 

 ually in motion, she carefully arranged all the feathers on her back with 

 her long bill and now and then reach out to change the position of some 

 leaf to suit her artistic fancy. Fig. 1 shows the position that she final- 

 ly assumed, and it is the natural pose of a sitting Woodcock when not 

 alarmed. Several excellent photographs"" of Woodcock have been taken 

 but all that I have ever seen show the bird in the position they assume 

 when alarmed, that is with the head forward, in a straight line with the 

 body, and the bill nearly lying on the ground. The plumage is also 

 contracted and she does not have the easy pose tnat this one has. For 

 fifty-five minutes she kept this same position without any change what- 

 ever; at this time a very loud whistle accompanied by a small boy, came 

 through the woods. He did not pass by near enough to discover either 

 myself or the nest. When the first strains of "Annie Laurie,'' which 

 he was vigorously if not musically rendering, reached us, the Wood- 

 cock turned her head in the direction of the sound, and as the boy came 

 into sight, she drew her feathers down closer and let her head fall for- 

 ward so as to better match the leaves and twigs. This was when 

 photograph No. 2 was made. If the boy had come closer she would 

 probably changed her position more yet. 



Another wait of an hour occurred before any change took place. This 

 interval I spent in watching various warblers and a pair of thrushes. 

 One male Maryland yellow-throat proved especially interesting, so 

 much so that he nearly betrayed my hiding place to the Woodcock. I 

 presume that he was searching for food when he hopped up into my 

 hiding place and caught sight of me. His loud rattle of alarm which he 

 uttered as he made haste to get away was amusing, but not so much so 

 as when he appeared again on the nearest twig above me and scolded, 

 accenting each remark with a flirt of his tail. It was just three o'clock 

 and I had about made up my mind to leave, having concluded that she 

 was not going to leave the nest to feed until after dusk, when I heard a 

 low, peculiar twittering whistle. I was unable to locate it for several 



