232 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
weight from six to seven ounces. The females generally 
exceed these measurements by about one in ten. In shape 
they much resemble the Wilson snipe (Scolopax Wiilsoni), 
only they are more round and compact, the eye larger and 
more prominent, and wings shorter but fuller. In color the 
bill is a yellowish brown; legs and feet of a pinkish flesh 
color; claws, dark olive or brown; iris, brown; forehead, 
dirty yellow, with two black bars across the back of the 
head, and two narrow ones in front on the neck, a finely- 
penciled dark line running the whole length of the head, the 
eye dividing it into two parts, with another similar line un- 
derneath, and marking the termination of the lower mandi- 
ble. Three broad bands of brownish black pass lengthways 
and parallel from the shoulder to the tail, divided from one 
another by a narrow line of bluish gray. The stomach and 
breast are of a warm fawn color, becoming deeper in shade 
as it approaches the tail and termination of the wings. 
This description, I am aware, is far from perfect, or such 
as the naturalist would demand; still, I think it is suffi- 
ciently clear to enable the novice to distinguish what he 
has got when the first American woodcock falls to his com- 
panionable gun. Although this bird resembles, in many 
respects, the snipe, in point of character it is essentially 
different. For instance, snipe will, in the middle of the 
day, without any perceptible reason, be seen taking long 
and erratic flights, ascending so high that the keenest sight 
fails to trace their course, and again wheeling about in the 
heavens, as if they were creatures of extraordinary moment- 
ary impulses; one instant with speed dashing off to the 
right, and in the next moment returning with equal veloc- 
ity. Not so with woodcock; they very seldom take flight 
during the glare of daylight unless disturbed, and then it 
is short, and only sufficient to avoid, if possible, the in- 
truder a second time disturbing their privacy. When on 
