Des c ription 
of Notes 
and. Songs 
we ran directly to the spot where he rose and concealed 
ourselves before he came down, we should hear a note that 
but few had ever listened to, as it was audible only a few 
yards off. This we tried and, starting at full speed when 
the bird got up, we succeeded in concealing ourselves in 
a large ground juniper on the edge of a little springy hole, 
just as the last notes of the Woodcock song died away in 
the air overhead and the bird dropped within five yards of 
us, the rustling of feathers being distinctly audible as it 
closed its wings. There we lay for a half hour or more, 
listening to its strange vibrating cry and occasionally 
catching an instant's glimpse of its form as it rustled over 
the brown grass within a few feet of us, but as the light 
had now faded quite away in the West it did not go up again, 
and finally getting tired of listening we sent on the dog 
and ended the performance for that night. 
The Woodcock rises and, after flying horizontally 
and silently close to the ground for about twenty yards, 
mounts straight up in a broad spiral sweep, its wings whistling 
loudly. Higher and higher it rises, drifting off with the 
wind, its wings still whistling steadily. Now it is perhaps 
a hundred yards up, and nearly lost to sight in the uncertain 
light, but it has reached its highest point and, poising a 
few moments, again descends. The whistling, hitherto perfectly 
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