PhiloheIa minor . 
Lake Umbagog, llaine. Beautiful song. 
1896. Watrous and I this evening after a walk retraced our 
May 14. steps to the Sargent pasture where we found two Woodcock sing 
ing and peeping, both unusually fine performers with full, 
rich voices. Perhaps this rarefied ai^ helped them a bit but 
certain it is that I never remember to have heard such sweet 
and strong singers before. It is surprising that anyone can 
deny its great musical merit. It does not suffer by compari¬ 
son with the many fine bird songs of this region but, on the 
contrary, seems to be one of the most delightful of them all.' 
The birds were about 200 yards off, one in a perfectly open 
rough, hummocky pasture 100 yards from any cover, the other 
on a springy flat sparsely covered with young willows, maples 
and other saplings. 
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