WOODCOCK 15 
Twenty years ago there was much discussion as to 
the manner in which the startled woodcock produces 
the whistling sound usually heard as it springs from 
the ground. The ranks of sportsmen were divided 
into two factions, one of which held that the whistle 
was vocal, while the other was as firmly convinced 
that it was produced by the wings. 
Oddly enough, able ornithologists, who were also 
sportsmen, were divided on the question—and are 
probably still divided, for the matter has never been 
satisfactorily settled. Such distinguished men as 
William Brewster, of Cambridge, and the late Gur- 
don Trumbull, of Hartford, whose ‘““Names and Por- 
traits of Birds Which Interest Gunners” will always 
be remembered, took opposite sides on this question 
and argued at length about it. The ever-increasing 
scarcity of the woodcock and consequent inability to 
observe it put an end to the discussion. 
Formerly it was legal all over the country to kill this 
species during the month of July, at which time many 
of the young were barely able to fly, and when, after 
a-late spring, some of the mother birds were even 
still brooding the eggs of their second hatching. This 
practice was most pernicious and is no longer per- 
mitted in most States. 
The coming together in September of the birds 
which have been mysteriously hidden away, no one 
knows where, is often loosely spoken of as “the first 
flight”—in other words, is regarded as the beginning 
of the southward migration. It is, however, nothing 
