66 BIRDS OF OHIO. 
.too well known as a game bird to pass unnoticed in any lo- 
cality. It is generally reported as being a fairly common 
-breeding bird throughout the state. Naturally it is more 
numerous in wet or damp woods than elsewhere, and may 
become even abundant in restricted localities which afford 
it both cover and abundant food. Being semi-nocturnal, 
it must be flushed to be seen during the day. At twilight 
one may be favored with the so-called song and peculiar 
mazy dancing flight during the mating season, in regions 
where the birds are numerous. 
Woodcock is the only woods-haunting bird which probes 
deep into the mud for the worms and insect larvae which 
lurk there. It therefore performs an office as an insect de- 
stroyer which is shared by no other bird. As its name im- 
plies, it is strictly sylvan, seldom venturing out of the brushy 
retreats except to pass from woods to woods, or during the 
mating flight. 
One would naturally expect a bird which depended upon 
mud-inhabiting insects for food to tarry south until warm 
weather insured an abundant supply of its food; but the 
Woodcock reaches Oberlin during the last week in March 
at the latest, often by the middle of that month, and does 
not return south until early November. 
83. (230.) GALLINAGO DELICATA (Ord). 201. 
Wilson Snipe. 
Synonyms: Gallinago wilsoni, G. media wilsoni, Scolopax wil- 
sonii, S. delicata. 
American Snipe, Jack Snipe. 
Kirtland, Ohio Geol. Surv., 1838, 165. 
The Jack Snipe is still an abundant migrant in some lo- 
calities, but is becoming scarce in others. It is the mud pro- 
ber of the fields and treeless bottom lands, complementing 
the work of the Woodcock. There can be no doubt that this 
snipe does good service for the farmer in ridding his wet 
fields of the insect larva which burrow there ready for the 
young crop soon to appear. It is a pity that the erratic flight 
of the snipe offers so many temptations to the sportsman, 
