V 

 SHORE-BIRDS 



WOODCOCK 



Oct. 27, 1851. Saw a woodcock ' feeding, probing 

 the mud with its long bill, under the railroad bridge 

 within two feet of me for a long time. Could not scare 

 it far away. What a disproportionate length of bill ! 

 It is a sort of badge they [wear] as a punishment for 

 greediness in a former state. 



July 9, 1852. Nowadays I scare up the woodcock (?) 

 by shaded brooks and springs in the woods. It has a 

 carry-legs flight and goes off with a sort of whistle. 



Dec. 17, 1856. At Clamshell, to my surprise, scare 

 up either a woodcock or a snipe. I think the former, 

 for I plainly saw considerable red on the breast, also a 

 light stripe along the neck. It was feeding alone, close 

 to the edge of the hill, where it is springy and still soft, 

 almost the only place of this character in the neighbor- 

 hood, and though I started it three times, it each time 

 flew but little way, round to the hillside again, perhaps 

 the same spot it had left a moment before, as if un- 

 willing to leave this unfrozen and comparatively warm 

 locality. It was a great surprise this bitter cold day, 

 when so many springs were frozen up, to see this hardy 

 bird loitering still. Once alighted, you could not see it 

 till it arose again. 



1 Or snipe ? 



