Philohela minor . 
Lake Unto agog, Maine. 
1897. Shortly after sunset Watrous and I paddled across the 
May 17. Lake to the Sargent farm. Landing at the head of the cove we 
walked up past the deserted house into the pasture where we 
found two Woodcock in full song. They were in exactly the 
same places respectively where the two birds sang last year. 
Furthermore every one of the peeping and singing stations near 
Lakeside occupied last year has its bird this season. What 
does it mean? Either the birds are the same individuals or 
the particular spots of turf over which they run and peep 
every evening have certain attractions obvious to all their 
tribe. It can scarcely toe mere coincidence for the pastures 
are all large and two of them certainly twenty or thirty acres 
each while the particular spots which the birds use do not 
seem to differ in any way from the rest of these open, turfy 
pasture lands. If the birds are really the same it is a mira¬ 
cle that so many have escaped the dangers of the journey 
southward last autumn and the return this spring. Thus far 
three K CM 
we have found five singers here,and there east of Lakeside, 
two to the westward in the Sargent opening. 
During at least two nights the past week the Woodcock 
nearest Lakeside sang steadily up to ljO JP.J&. and no doubt much 
later. The moon was nearly full. The first night was clear, 
the second rainy but with the moon breaking through the clouds 
at short intervals. 
