SCOLOPACIDJE : WOODCOCK. 
619 
229. PHILO'HELA. (Gr. (})l\os, philos, \o\mg ; eXos, helos, a bog.) American Woodcock. 
First three primaries cinarginate, attenuate and falcate, abruptly shorter and narrower than the 
4th. Wings short and rounded ; when folded, the prhnaries hidden by the coverts and inner 
Fig. 434. — Head and attenuate outer 3 primaries o£ Philohela, nat. size. (Ad nat. del. E. C.) 
quills. Legs short; tibiae feathered to the joint ; tarsus shorter than middle toe and claw, scu- 
tellate before and behind ; toes long and slender, cleft to the base. Bill much longer than head, 
perfectly straight, stout at base, where the ridge rises high, knobbed at end of upper mandible, 
very deeply grooved nearly all its length, the culmen and line of gonys also furrowed toward 
end ; very soft and sensitive ; gape very short and narrow. Head large ; neck short ; ear under 
the eye, which is very full, set in hack upper corner of the head. Sexes alike ; 9 largest. 
605. P. mi'nor. (Lat. minor, smaller — than the European Woodcock. Figs. 432, 434, 43.5.) 
Woodcock. Bog- sucker. Colors above harmoniously blended and varied black, brown, 
gray, and russet ; be- 
low, pale warm brown 
of variable shade, not 
barred. A dark stripe 
from bill to eye. 
Crown from opposite 
eye with black and 
light bars ; along the 
inner edges of the 
wings a bluish -ashy 
stripe ; lining of wings 
rust - brown ; quills 
plain fuscous ; tail 
black, spotted, and 
tipped ; bill brownish 
flesh-color, dusky at 
end; feet pale red- 
dish flesh-color. The 
woodcock is 10 or 11 
inches long, and 16 
or 17 in extent; wing 4..50-4.75 ; bill 2.50-2.75 ; tarsus 1.25 ; middle toe and claw LSO^; and 
weighs usually 5, 6, or 7 ounces. The woodhen, as some aesthetic market-women prefer to call 
her, is larger, 11 or 12 inches long; extent 17 or 18 ; wing 4.75-5.00 ; bill 2.75-3.00; some 
good fat ones up to 8 or 9 oz. in weiglit. Bogs, swamps, wet woodland and fields, Eastern 
U. S. and Canada ; N. to Nova Scotia; N.W. to Minnesota and up the ^lissouri to Fort Rice ; 
Fig. 435. - American Woodcock, much reduced. (From Lewis.) 
