THE WOODCOCK. 
181 
sion, until near nine o'clock in the evening, and is prolonged 
for a number of days during the period of incubation, pro- 
bably ceasing with the new cares attendant on the hatching 
of the brood. The female, as in the European species, is 
greatly attached to her nest, and an instance is related to 
me of a hen being taken up from it, and put on again with- 
out attempting to fly. 
ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 
Mr. Latham mentions a female of the common Wood- 
cock sitting on her eggs so tamely, that she suffered herself 
to be stroked on the back without offering to rise, and the 
male, no less interested in the common object of their cares, 
sat also close at hand. The European species has had the 
credit of exercising so much ingenuity and affection, as to 
seize upon one of its weakly young, and carry it along to a 
place of security from its enemies. 
Mr. Ives, of Salem, once on flushing an American Wood- 
cock from its nest, was astonished to see that it carried off 
in its foot one of its brood, the only one which happened to 
be newly hatched ; and as the young run immediately on 
leaving the shell, it is obvious that the little nurslings 
could be well reared, or all of them, as they might appear, 
without the aid of the nest, now no longer secured from 
intrusion. 
In New England this highly esteemed game is common 
in the market of Boston to the close of October, but they 
