IDYLLS OF BIRD LIFE 
Knowing the woodcock to be nocturnal in its habits I de¬ 
cided to pay this pair a call at night. 
One evening about two weeks after my first visit with the 
woodcock I crept silently into the woods that sheltered their 
home, just as dusk was settling over the earth. The Voiqe of 
most of the feathered folk had already been stilled for the night, 
save one woodthrush, that had arrived a little earlier than 
usual from his Winter sojourn. He was gently tollingIthe pass¬ 
ing of another day, from somewhere in the woods. 
As I glided into my improvised blind, I noticed tl 
woodcock on the nest. Her brownish, mottled ba 
perfectly with her surroundings; a wonderful exam 
/ 1 
tective coloration, making it difficult, at first, for me to find her. 
While I lay crouched low behind my screen of tre;es I saw, 
heretofore unnnoticed, the male bird strut into a cleared space 
about ten feet square and about twenty feet from the nest. Then 
began one of the greatest aerial stunts I had ever witness 
VVhirling up in a spiral to about forty or fifty feet, <chirpi 
some unintelligible notes, he descended in slow circles, 
,D d £■ 
he finally reached the ground. Here he strutted about,' wi 
and tail erect, uttering excited picks 
silently watched his 
•aV- C-T ~ <3 
lIlWiv... 
D 
pe 
