220 BIRDS 



the one sandpiper that we may confidently expect to meet 

 throughout the summer. 



The Woodcock 



Length — 10 to 11 inches; female 11 to 12 inches. 



Male and Female — ^Upper parts varied with gray, brown, 

 black, and buff, an indistinct black line on front of head, 

 anotl](,er running from bill to eye; back of head black with 

 three buff bars. Under parts reddish buff brown. 

 Eyes large and placed in upper corner of triangular head. 

 Bill long, straight, stout. Short, thick neck and com- 

 pact, rounded body; wings and legs short. 



Range — ^Eastern North America, from the British provinces 

 to the Gulf, nesting nearly throughout its range; 

 winters south of Virginia and southern Illinois. 



Season — ^Resident all but the coldest months; a few winter. 



The borings of the woodcock in bogs, wet woodlands, 

 and fields^ — ^little groups of clean-cut holes made by the 

 bird's bill in the soft earth — ^give the surest clue to the 

 presence of this game bird, that has been tracked by sports- 

 men and pot hunters aUke, from Labrador to the Gulf, by 

 means of these tell-tale marks until the day cannot be far 

 distant when there will be no woodcock left to shoot. 

 Since earthworms are the bird's staple diet, these must be 

 probed for and felt after through the moist earth. Down 

 goes the woodcock's bill, sunk to the nostril; the upper half, 

 being flexible at the tip, draws the worm forth as one might 

 raise a string through the neck of a jar with one's finger. 

 Curiously, the tip of the upper mandible works quite in- 

 dependently of the lower one — a fact only recently dis- 



