WOODCOCK. 027 
thickets, and, at the approach of evening, seek the springs and open 
watery places to feed in. They soon disperse themselves over the 
country to breed. About the beginning of July, particularly in long- 
continued hot weather, they descend to the marshy shores of our large 
rivers, their favorite.springs and watery recesses inland being chiefly 
dried up. To the former of these retreats they are pursued by the 
merciless sportsman, flushed by dogs, and shot down in great numbers. 
This species of amusement, when eagerly followed, is still more labo- 
rious and fatiguing than that of Snipe shooting; and from the nature 
of the ground, or cripple, as it is usually called, viz., deep mire inter- 
sected with old logs, which are covered and hid from sight by high 
_Teeds, weeds, and alder bushes, the best dogs are soon tired out; and 
it is customary with sportsmen who regularly pursue this diversion, to 
have two sets of dogs, to relieve each other alternately. 
The Woodcock usually begins to lay in April.. The nest is placed 
on the ground, in a retired part of the woods, frequently at the root of 
-anold stump. It is formed of a few withered leaves and stalks of 
grass laid with very little art. The female lays four, sometimes five 
eggs, about an inch and a half long, and an inch or rather more in 
diameter, tapering suddenly to the smal] end. These are of a dun 
clay color, thickly marked with spots of brown, particularly at the 
great end, and interspersed with others of a very pale purple. The 
nest of the Woodcock has, in several instances that have come to my 
knowledge, been found with eggs in February ; but,its usual time of 
beginning to lay is early in April. In July, August, and September, 
they are considered in good order for shooting. 
The Woodcock is properly a nocturnal bird, feeding chiefly at night, 
and seldom stirring about till after sunset. At such times, as well 
as in the early part of the morning, particularly in spring, he rises, by 
a kind of spiral course, to a considerable height in the air, uttering at 
genus, but have been mentioned as divisions only. Such is the case with the 
present, which is gencrally classed under those with the tibiz feathered and the 
tibia bare. Vieillot, following this: division, proposed Rusticola for the Wood- 
cocks, or those with plumed tibiee ; and, as far as artificial systems are concerned, 
and facility of reference, we should prefer keeping them as 2 sub-genus. 
The Woodcocks, in addition to the plumed tibize, differ in other respects ; and 
an individual, technically unacquainted with ornithology, would at once pick them 
out from the Snipes, from a something in their tourneur, as Mr. Audubon would 
call it. The tarsi are much shorter, and show that the bird is not intended to wade, 
or to frequent very marshy situations, like the Snipes. - They are all inhabitants of 
woods, and it is only during severe storms that they are constantly found near a 
rill or streamlet. Their food is as much found by searching under the fallen leaves 
and decayed grasses, as in wet places; and, in this country, where Woodcocks 
are abundant, they may be traced through a wood by the newly scratched up 
leaves. There is a marked difference, also, in the plumage; it is invariably of a 
more sombre shade ; sometimes the under parts are closely barred with a darker 
color, while, in the Snipes, the latter part is oftener pure white. We have a beau- 
tiful connection between the divisions in the Scolopax Sabina of Vigors,* which, 
though of the lesser size of the Snipes, has the entire plumage of the Woodcock, 
and also the thighs feathered to a greater length downwards. . } 
The species are few in number, amounting only to three or four. America, 
Europe, aud India, seem as yet their only countries. ‘The habits of most agree, 
and all partially migrate from north to south to breed. —Ep. 
* Is this the Scolopaz Sakhalina of Vieillot, Nouv. Dict. ? — Ep. 
