38 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



paths by day, and when the sun has gone from sight, 

 directs them through the pleasures of the night. 



Woodcock, in their intercourse with each other, dis- 

 play none of that pugnacious spirit possessed by the 

 quail and grouse, and are altogether more loving in 

 their ways, and seemingly better satisfied with their 

 surroundings. 



It is during the warm spring evenings that one may 

 hear, by visiting the breeding-grounds, the song of the 

 woodcock; and the love-notes of the male, though not so 

 soft as those of the thrush, are far sweeter than the strains 

 of many a well-reputed songster, doubtless sounding as 

 sweet to his lady-bird down in the ferns as any sere- 

 nade ever sung by ardent lover. 



With guttural prelude to his song while on the 

 ground, he circles upward in his flight through the 

 twilight, till, lost to sight, his notes are heard high in the 

 air, not unlike those of a night-hawk; but it is in his 

 downward flight that the full melody of his love-song is 

 heard, as he approaches the female who is awaiting him; 

 resting a few moments, he repeats his upward flight and 

 song, and at intervals repeats this perfomiance until 

 darkness has shut out the last glimmer of the daylight. 

 Who would suppose that this bird, indifferent as he 

 seems in the day-time to all sentiment, could sing such 

 love-songs in the gloaming? 



There is no bird family of all our fields and forests so 

 peculiar in its ways, or any whose ways are so hard to 

 study, and consequently so little understood. Woodcock 

 do not fly about during the day for either food or pleasure, 

 rarely taking wing unless disturbed, seeking rest and quiet 

 all day long away from human eyes; but when the sun has 

 set, and most good birds have gone to bed, they start out 

 for their feeding-ground. 



They seem to know by intuition Avhat loam contains 



