CARLISLE, MASSACHUSETTS 
m?9 
8 
The 
Sorig 
of the 
Woodcock 
Mr. Robbins having notified us that the Woodcock 
were in full song at Carlisle, Jim and I determined to make 
a trip thither for the purpose of hearing them once more. 
We accordingly selected this evening which bid fair to be 
a good one for the purpose. Driving up from Concord, we 
arrived at Mr. Robbins 1 a little before sunset. A Woodcock, 
we found, had for several evenings past sung directly be¬ 
hind the house, rising first from a bushy run where I examined 
a nest in 1876 and afterwards lighting in the open field 
that adjoined the house. When the sun had fairly set and 
as the twilight was beginning to descend, Arthur Robbins 
came in to tell us that the Woodcock had already begun to 
bleat. We accordingly went out and sure enough at intervals 
of a half minute or so the Night-hawk-1ike cry came up 
from the depths of the hollow in the run. Before the first 
flight upward began, we took our position on the stone wall 
a 
that separated the field from bushy/hollow, and we after¬ 
wards found that we could not have been better posted, for 
at the close of his song our long-billed friend lit within 
twenty paces of us and we had an excellent opportunity to 
observe all his motions as he sat on the close-cropped and 
withered yellowish turf. He repeated his serenade some six 
or eight times, when it became so dark that he ceased alto¬ 
gether for that night. Once he lit within twelve feet of 
