146 



NOTES ON THE AMERICAN WOODCOCK 



bird had laid only three eggs and had found difficulty in keep- 

 ing on them for any great length of time. The woodcock lives 

 on worms from the soft marshy ground, and consequently she 

 could not remain a long time on the eggs; or possibly the large 

 amount of falling snow made the bird continually shift her 

 position until by this constant moving, the eggs were covered 

 with snow; then the next day the other egg was deposited as 

 before mentioned. After this the second snow-fall occurred 



From Photo by Ed. Reinecke 



which the bird could not withstand and so finally deserted 

 nest and eggs. We found several more nests in the same way 

 on that day, and in each case the eggs were found as described. 



In the spring of 1908 we were fortunate in securing good 

 photographs of the woodcock for in its breeding time this wary 

 bird loses its shyness, as will be shown by the illustrations. 



Having located a bird on the nest, we first took the picture 

 on page 137. No disturbance had been made in the surround- 

 ings. Then my son crept up towards the nest and cut away 

 some twigs, dry grass and herbage as shown in the picture on 

 page 138. 



