16 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
more than a collecting in favorite food localities of the 
home-bred birds—those which have spent the summer, 
or been reared, in the neighborhood. 
The first true migratory movement of the wood- 
cock usually follows a sharp frost early in October. 
The birds are not gregarious, and for the most part 
move singly; though two, three, and even four have 
been seen flying together, and sometimes six or eight 
may be started in succession from a single small piece 
of cover. The migration is performed during the 
night, though in dull, cloudy weather there is some 
movement in the daytime. Their flight is low over the 
fields. This low flight is swift, and the birds are often 
killed by flying against telegraph wires, and some- 
times dash themselves against buildings. 
In New York and New Jersey the woodcock may 
almost be considered as resident, for in mild winters 
a few birds are to be found late in December and 
early in February. The bird does not seem especially 
to dread the cold, but the freezing up of the ground 
cuts off the supply of food, and so obliges it to move 
southward. Often, however, in the coldest weather, 
an old fat bird may be found about some warm spring 
hole, where the ground never freezes; and here, if 
undisturbed, it may remain all through the winter. 
The principal food of woodcock is the earth-worm, 
though they also devour many insects which are to be 
found in the damp situations which they affect, and 
have been seen to catch butterflies. The “angle- 
worm,” however, is the main reliance of this species, 
