AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 
177 
States. Indeed, so sedentary are these birds at times that a 
few are known to winter in the sheltered forests and open 
watery glades of Pennsylvania ; at the same season also many 
are seen in the vicinity of Natchez in Mississippi. According 
to their usual habits, they keep secluded in the woods and 
thickets till the approach of evening, when they sally forth to 
seek out springs, paths, and broken soil, in quest of worms 
and other insects on which they feed. They now disperse 
themselves over the country to breed, and indicate their pres- 
ence in all directions by the marks of their boring bills, which 
are seen in such soft and boggy places as are usually sheltered 
by thickets and woods. They also turn over the fallen leaves 
from side to side with their bills in quest of lurking insects, 
but never scratch with their feet, though so robust in their 
appearance. The sensibility possessed by the extremity of 
the bill, as in the Snipe, is of such an exquisite nature that they 
are enabled to collect their food by the mere touch without 
using their eyes, which are set at such a distance and elevation 
in the back part of the head as to give the bird a remarkable 
aspect of stupidity. When flushed or surprised in their hiding- 
places, they only rise in a hurried manner to the tops of the 
bushes or glide through the undergrowth to a short distance, 
when they instantly drop dowm again, and run out for some 
space on touching the ground, lurking as soon as they imagine 
themselves in a safe retreat. At times in open woods they fly 
out straight with considerable vigor and swiftness ; but the 
effort, from the shortness of the wing, is always attended with 
much muscular exertion. 
During the mating season, in the morning as well as eve- 
ning, but more particularly the latter, the male in the vicinity 
of his mate and nest rises successively in a spiral course like 
a Lark. While ascending he utters a hurried and feeble 
warble ; but in descending, the tones increase as he approaches 
towards the ground, and then, becoming loud and sweet, pass 
into an agreeable, quick, and tumultuous song. As soon as the 
performer descends, the sound ceases for a moment, when with 
a sort of stifled utterance, accompanied by a stiff and balancing 
VOI. IT. — 12 
