420 GAME-BIRDS. 



swampy groves, especially of alders or birches, and some- 

 times pastures or clearings. There is but little or no nest. 



c. A " game-bird," though exceptions may be taken to al- 

 most any definition of this term, is generally understood to 

 be a bird that lies to a dog, and that can be shot only when 

 on the wing. This definition, however, excludes, and we 

 think rightly, the " Partridge " or Ruffed Grrouse, who will 

 not lie to a dog, but who on the contrary often takes to a 

 tree, thus causing to the scientific sportsman constant annoy- 

 ance. But the Woodcock is par excellence a game-bird, and, 

 though he may play in a game of life and death to him, he 

 adheres as scrupulously to rules of honor as any knight- 

 errant of old. He may have his cunning devices, but he 

 does not sneak or hide in trees. This conduct, however, 

 finds no corresponding sentiment in his rapacious and im- 

 provident pursuer, to whose reckless cravings for sport or 

 gain we in New England are indebted for the present scar- 

 city of the luscious Woodcock. Unless the laws, and general 

 feelings on the subject, are greatly modified, comparatively 

 few more years will suffice to nearly exterminate them. 



The Woodcock are almost universally distributed over 

 North America, both as residents and birds of passage. We 

 shall speak here of their habits in New England only. 

 Though a friend once showed the writer a record of one or 

 more Woodcock killed in Massachusetts during every month 

 of the year, these birds are migratory, and, though appar- 

 ently often solitary in their flights, find their way, by an ad- 

 mirable instinct, through "the illimitable waste of air," at 

 least as far as from Labrador to Maryland. Many breed in 

 the Southern States, even as far south as the Gulf, while 

 others breed to the northward of Canada ; but all pass the 

 winter in the South, their northern range at that season 

 being, it is believed, Maryland. They reach the neighborhood 

 of Boston as early as March, and then, or more often early in 

 April, they may be found on those dry hillsides, which were 

 their last resorts in autumn. Almost immediately after their 

 arrival, they begin to mate, and they may be observed in the 

 dusk of evening to mount high in the air, going through a vari- 



