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Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your editorial comments on Mr. Gurdon Trumbull s 
'article on the woodcock, in your edition of the 11th inst., 
you say that no one had remarked on the curving of the 
[upper mandible of the bill. I have had but little oppor- 
tunity for studying the woodcock, never having lived in 
a section where the bird is more than a casual visitor, but 
T have had the good luck to see the bird curve the man- 
dible while I held him, entirely uninjured, in my hand. 
Back in the early 80s (I cannot say which), while 
j stationed at the Boston Navy Yard, some men of my 
department saw a woodcock light on the ground and run 
into a pile of lumber; they secured him without starting 
a feather, and brought him to me. I put him in a wire 
house in which my children had had some rabbits and 
kept him four days. I did not have the time to give to a 
close study of his habits, but one thing I did. have mv 
attention called to and that was the curving of the bill. 
I had the bird in my hand before putting him m the m- 
closure and while examining the head and eyes I took 
hold of the tip of the bill and immediately on my letting 
go he curved the bill exactly as shown in Mr. Trumbull’s 
sketch. I was uneasy at first, thinking I had injured the 
bill but in a short time the bill was in its proper shape. 
I repeated the thing three or four times and always with 
the same result. , , _ . , , , 
I did not see the bird feed, although I have no doubt 
that he did so, for after four days’ confinement he was as 
plump as any bird I ever saw, there were plenty of worms 
in the earth in the inclosure and I kept a place very wet, 
but did not examine for borings. 
At first the bird was quite wild, and when I would go 
into the inclosure would start to fly, but would bring up 
against the screen and fall back. I thought at first he 
would kill himself, but the hard knocks did not seem to 
hurt him in the least. In all of his quick short flights 1 
did not hear the peculiar noise the woodcock makes m 
flight; I did hear the noise noted by Mr. Trumbull when 
I approached the bird. , 
He got very tame, and on the fourth day when I took 
him out of the cage to set him at liberty I had no trouble 
in catching him, lie allowed me to pick him up without 
trying to get away from me, and when I reached the open 
fields and let him out of the basket he walked around, 
with my wife and me just standing within 10ft, of him, 
for at least a minute before he took flight. 
The bird was very interesting, and I was sorry I did 
not have the time to observe him more thoroughly. 
As to the sound made by the woodcock when in flight, 
I do not believe in the “wing theory” any more than I 
believe that the sleeep of the snipe is made by the 
wings . U. S. G. White. 
Norfolk, Va., Dee. 16. 
