132 
with pale reddish brown of varying shades. In 
shape the eggs are rotund, and less pyriform 
than those of the snipe and other small waders ; 
they average in size I.59xI.22 inches. 
After the eggs are hatched what strange oc- 
cupants we find in the hollow! what queer 
masqueraders are taking the place of the hand- 
some eggs! The young—for young woodcock 
they are—are remarkable creatures, and are 
recognized by their bills, which are their only 
claims to a likeness to their parents. They are 
pretty at first as to markings, of blending sien- 

NATURE'S REALM. 
undisturbed, but when molested they will at- 
tempt to scuttle off to cover. In this they are 
in no wise as expert as young quail or grouse; 
however, if one will draw away from the scene 
and return later, it will be found that the old. 
bird has effectually concealed her brood. 
Woodcock are great destroyers of worms. 
and grubs, and should statistics be given as to: 
the amount of this kind of food devoured by 
this bird, I am afraid that I should not be be-- 
lieved. If we are to credit Audubon, that ac- 
curate observer and celebrated ornithologist, 
THE Woopcock. 
nas, bone and caledonian browns, although 
grotesque in the extreme. After a few days of 
nursery life they shake the dust, or, more pro- 
perly, muck, from their feet and leave the so- 
called nest, and wander about and in and out 
among the weeds and grasses. They tumble 
around as do young snipe, and in many re- 
spects much resemble those young chicks in 
appearance. At first they are clothed with a 
filmy down, which in time gives way to pin- 
feathers, and a full month elapses ere the young 
are of an age to fly and care for themselves. 
When discovered they may be seen resting 
themselves, in the manner of the old one when 
on the nest, or seeming to, on their bills, when 
the woodcock will devour as many worms in & 
single night as will equal its own weight. On 
coming to a tempting bit of ground they plunge 
their bills rapidly into the soft earth in an ap- 
parently aimless manner, but visibly by an as- 
tonishing correctness to the worms constituting 
their food, and which they pull to the surface- 
and devour with great gusto. 
When a boy, nothing exceeded the pleasure 
of a stroll by the river and search for the wood- 
cock’s nest, and those days spent in the study 
of their habits were indeed red-letter days to 
me, and are still pleasing recollections, and 
only surpassed by recaliing early October 
hunts in pursuit of the whistling wings. 
