Woodcock and Turtle. 
While on a collecting trip at Gardner’s 
Lake, New London County, Conn., last 
Spring, we made some enquiries of an old 
gentleman about Birds of Prey, Ducks, 
etc., about the lake. After giving us the 
desired information the old gentleman sta- 
ted that he was a few years ago driving 
slowly down the road when he heard some- 
thing “ flopping ” its wings over the wall. 
Thinking it might be a wounded bird he 
got over the wall and found a Woodcock 
struggling in the mud, flapping its wings 
laboriously. Taking it for granted the 
bird was wounded, he seized it and in pull- 
ing it out found that its foot was fast, and 
he only secured it by leaving its foot be- 
hind. This state of things surprised the 
old man not a little, and while he stood 
there he noticed the mud moving where 
he had drawn the bird out. He secured a 
hoe which was in his wagon and began to 
dig in the mud ; finding there was some- 
thing alive there, he worked until he 
brought to terra firma a good sized Snap- 
ping Turtle. It would appear that the 
Woodcock in search of food had walked 
over the soft mud, and the turtle, also in 
search of a dinner, had seized the Wood- 
cock by the foot, and would have taken it 
under only the hole was not deep enough 
for the mud turtle to get the bird below 
the surface ; lienee the struggle for life. 
CL&D. vlll. Aug. 1883. p. 6^ 
An incident of the blizzard of last March was related to 
me one morning recently. It will be remembered that 
storm was the most severe that has visited this section in a 
half century. All business was at a stand-still, railroads 
were paralyzed, and for two days the sole occupation was 
shoveling snow. The storm occurred about the middle of 
the month, just at the time when the woodcocks are moving 
northward, and no doubt the birds suffered severely and 
many must have been killed. On the corners of Montague 
and Court streets, in Brooklyn, a colored man was cleaning 
i i the sidewalk of the piles of snow, using one of the broad 
wooden snow shovels for the purpose, and in one of the 
shovelfuls, as he threw it toward the gutter, was a partially 
chilled woodcock. As the bird was freed from the snow it 
fluttered away for a few rods and fell again in the soft snow, 
burying itself as it fell. It was followed and captured but, 
being held between the captor’s hands long enough to be- 
come warmed, finally escaped. It was seen by quite a num- 
ber, for it was shown to the passers-by by the colored man 
who had it. Mr 
j New York. >/»( xx y: -fr*. /<f f U. Jacob Pentz. 
