124 FIELD SHOOTING. 



itself to be a voracious feeder. It was no 

 small trouble to keep it supplied ■with worms. 

 It bored in to the earth given to it, and was always 

 ready for food. The digestion of the woodcock 

 is very rapid. This accounts ibr the fact that 

 birds which arrive poor speedily get condition in 

 good ground. 



For the procurement of its food, for which it 

 bores in soft, moist ground, fat, loamy soils, and 

 rich vegetable mould, it has a long, slender 

 bill, very sensitive, and a long, prehensile tongue 

 with barbs on the end. The young grow rapidly 

 where the lying is good and the food plentiful. 

 In favorable seasons they have attained their 

 growth by the fourth of July, when the shoot- 

 ing commences. But in some places, in some 

 years, they are not above two-thirds grown at 

 that date. I saw woodcock at Boston this year 

 in the middle of July not two-thirds grown, and 

 it was a pity they had been shot. After the 

 broods have once dispersed, the woodcock is a 

 solitary bird. It is true that a number of them 

 may sometimes be found in the same swale, 

 " cripple,'' or piece of woodland, but that is 

 because the lying of the place suits them, and 

 the boring is good, worms and the larvae of insects 



