134 



NEBTS AND EGGS OF 



228. AMERICAN WOODCOCK. PMlohela minor (Gmel.) Geog. Dist.— East- 

 ern Province of North America, north to British Province, west to Dakota, Nebraska, 

 Kansas, etc. Breeds throughout its range. 



This noted game bird frequents the bogs, swampy fields and wet woodlands of 

 Eastern United States and Canada, and breeds throughout its range. The nests are 

 mere depressions in some dry spot in swampy land, generally under the cover of a 

 clump of briers or other wild shrubbery, often in more open places. The eggs of the 

 Woodcock are laid early in April, and in some localities not until some time in May. 

 In Ohio, I have found eggs as early as April 3, and young have been seen as early as 

 April 9, near Cleveland, Ohio. There are records of eggs of this species averaging 

 in size 1.80x1.25, but I have never seen any so large, although they exhibit consider- 

 able variations. These sizes doubtless refer to the eggs of the European species. 

 Although known to the majority of people by its name of Woodcock, it nevertheless 

 has many aliases in different parts of the country which it visits, and is called Big 



228. Ambsican Woodcock 



Mud, Big-headed, Blind and Wood and Whistling Snipe; * * * Timber Doodle, 

 Bog Bird, Night Partridge, Night Peck, Hookum Pake, Pewee, Labrador Twister, 

 Whistler, and probably many others. Being a migrating species, the length of its 

 stay in any particular locality depends greatly upon the weather, for though per- 

 haps very abundant on one day, yet if during the night from sudden cold their feed- 

 ing ground becomes frozen, by the next morning not a bird would be found, all 

 having departed to a milder clime. It migrates always at night, when indeed, it is 

 most active, for it is a nocturnal bird, its sight being much better after the sun has 

 departed than when the eye is exposed to the full light of day.* As a taxidermist I 

 have prepared more specimens of this species killed within the last twenty years 

 by telegraph wires, moving railroad trains, etc., than I have those brought In by 



* North American Shore Birds; a history of the Snipes, Sandpipers, Plovers and their 

 allies inhabiting the beaches and marshes of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the North 

 American continent; their popular and scientific names, together with a full description 

 of their mode of life, nesting, migration and descriptions of the summer . and winte- 

 plumages of adult and young, so that each species may be readily identified. A reference 

 book for the naturalist, sportsman and 16ver of birds. By Daniel Glraud Billot, F. R. S. B., 

 etc.; ex-Presldent American Ornithologists' Union, Curator of Zoology In the Field Co- 

 lumbian Museum, Chicago; author of "Birds of North America"; Illustrated monographs 

 of Auk. Thrushes, Grouse. Pheasants, Birds of Paradise, HornbiUs, Cats, etc., with seventy- 

 four plates; New York: Francis P. Harjjer, Publisher, 1895. pp. 39-40. 



