270 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



the manner of the woodcock, at this working rapidly and even with the head and 

 part of the neck under water. On the wing they are vigorous and move with sur- 

 prising celerity, performing in company many extensive and interesting manoeuvres. 

 They are very unsuspicious, and permit easy approach within gunshot, so that 

 among these flocks, which not unusually aggregate hundreds, it is possible, over 

 decoys and by imitating their call, to which they readily respond, to commit great 

 slaughter. Even after an alarm, so tame are they and so solicitous for the wounded, 

 that it is of little trouble to recall them within range. 



The dowitcher locates its nest along the marshy margin of some small lake, and 

 after the manner of snipes and sandpipers, without any attempt at elaborate archi- 

 tecture, proceeds to arrange a few dead leaves in a slight hollow made in the mossy 

 ground, and makes this to serve for the cradle of its young. The four decidedly 



pyriform eggs vary much in size, and are 

 drab or somewhat olivaceous, with many 

 markings of dark brown. 



The dowitcher is somewhat over ten 

 inches in length, with an alar expanse of 

 about eighteen inches ; the wing is five 

 and a half, the bill from two to two and a 

 half inches in length. In summer the 

 / upper parts are black, mottled with cinna- 

 mon and whitish ; the upper part of the 

 rump is white, usually with few dusky 

 markings or none ; the rest of the rump, 

 the tail and tail-coverts are barred with 

 blackish, the tail much the most heavily ; 

 the head, neck and under surface of the 

 body are pale cinnamon, the abdomen 

 whitish, the sides and breast spotted with 

 dusky, the head and neck streaked with 

 the same. In winter the bird is quite 

 different in appearance, having lost almost 

 all the warm brown and cinnamon shades, 

 and being nearly uniform gray, somewhat 

 mingled with whitish, with the abdomen 

 entirely white. 



IN THE WHEAT FIELD — THE QUAIL. J 



