AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 477 



half-spread tail, then erects itself, and stands as if listening for a few mo- 

 ments, when, if the cry is not answered, it repeats it. I feel pretty con- 

 fident that, in spring, the female, attracted by these sounds, flies to the 

 male ; for on several occasions I observed the bird that had uttered the 

 call immediately caress the one that had just arrived, and which I knew 

 from its greater size to be a female. I am not, however, quite certain 

 that this is always the case, for on other occasions I have seen a male fly 

 off and alight near another, when they would immediately begin to fight, 

 tugging at and pushing each other with their bills, in the most curious 

 manner imaginable. 



The nest, which is formed of dried leaves and grass, without much 

 apparent care, is usually placed in some secluded part of the woods, at 

 the foot of some bush, or by the side of a fallen trunk. In one instance, 

 near Camden, in New Jersey, I found one in a small swamp, on the upper 

 part of a log, the lower portion of which was covered with water to the 

 height of several inches. The eggs, which are laid from February to the 

 first of June, according to the latitude of the place selected, are usually 

 four, although I have not very unfrequently found five in a nest. They 

 average one inch and five and a half-eighths in length, by one inch and 

 an eighth in breadth, are smooth, of a dull yellowish clay colour, varying 

 in depth, and irregularly but pretty thickly marked with patches of dark 

 brown, and others of a purple tint. 



The young run about as soon as they emerge from the shell. To my 

 astonishment, I once met with three of them on the border of a sand-bar 

 on the Ohio, without their parent, and to all appearance not more than 

 half a day old. I concealed myself near them for about half an hour, 

 during which time the little things continued to totter about the edge of the 

 water, as if their mother had gone that way. During the time I remain- 

 ed I did not see the old bird, and what became of them I know not. The 

 young birds are at first covered with down of a dull yellowish-brown co- 

 lour, then become streaked with deeper umber tints, and gradually acquire 

 the colours of the old. At the age of from three to four weeks, although 

 not fully fledged, they are able to fly and escape from their enemies, and 

 when they are six weeks old, it requires nearly as much skill to shoot 

 them on wing as if they were much older. At this age they are called 

 stupid by most people ; and, in fact, being themselves innocent, and not 

 yet having had much experience, they are not sufficiently aware of the 

 danger that may threaten them, wlien a two-legged monster, armed with 



