The Woodcock 241 



your part and she must surely be yours, but some- 

 how she is always a little beyond your grasp. Finally, 

 with a quick movement, she is on the wing and away, 

 and you realize that you have been fooled by a mother 

 woodcock. Your admiration for the bird and the 

 animal creation in general has increased, and you 

 are the better for having seen this proof of unselfish 

 bird love. By this ruse the mother has led you some 

 distance from the nest and eggs, and the chances are 

 that you may not find them. If there are chicks and 

 they are large enough to run, they have hidden them- 

 selves long before your return. 



The chicks are fluffy litde fellows, so like in color 

 to the brown leaves on which they first open their 

 eyes upon the big, strange world, that it is almost 

 impossible to detect their small crouching forms. So 

 strong is the instinct of concealment that you may 

 find the little fellow prone upon a leaf, with eyes 

 sometimes closed, and you may touch him without 

 the slightest movement on his part. Even lift him 

 gently in your hand, and he still obeys that wonderful 

 something which we caU instinct. I have been told 

 that if the nest has often been visited and the old 

 bird frequently disturbed, as soon as the eggs are 

 hatched she carries the chicks away, one at a time, 

 in her claws, to a place of safety. 



