
by roadside survey? If this can be done we may be on the way to a 
method of annual evaluation of changes in amounts of available breeding 
and wintering habitat which, taken together with the singing ground and 
wintering ground indexes may give us a fairly accurate indication of 
what is happening te the over-all woodcock population. 
The results of the cooperative study to develop a breeding ground 
index of woodcock abundance are submitted again this year as the only 
basis we have at present for judging the status of this species, I[t 
is realized by all who have had close contact with this study that 
these data should not be taken at their face value in judging fluctua- 
tions in populations. We have not tested this method sufficiently yet 
to have complete confidence in its value as an index. Furthermore, as 
previously pointed out it is probably at best an index of changes in 
populations in the particular areas of habitat sampled and may not 
reflect changes that have taken place in the total amount of suitable 
habitat available to breeding woodcock,. 
We have broken down the data into two groups--sirging grounds east 
of the Appalachians and those west of those mountains. This is done in 
an arbitrary manner merely as an experiment to see if there are any 
marked differences in these two breeding areas, not because they repre- 
sent discreet populations which remain entirely separate. In fact we 
know from the little available banding data that there is a big over- 
lap in winter, particularly in the lower Mississippi Valley, which 
appears to be the principal wintering area for this species. It is 
noted in Table 1 thet a decline of 20% was recorded in woodcock per 
stop per trip east of the Appalachian Mountains as compared with last 
year. It is of interest that these same routes last year showed 
practically no change from the year before. Mendall, in his report 
beyond, mentions indication of definite deterioration of habitat on 
some of the Massachusetts routes, but does not believe this to be 
general. West of the mountains this year we note a 25% decrease. This 
is almost counterbalanced by the 22% increase recorded last year in the 
same area, incicating that this years decrease is not the result of a 
gradual average decline in amount or suitability of the habitats covered 
by the routes. | 
In view of the above data and in default of any information that 
would suggest a radical over-all decrease in suitable woodcock breed- 
ing habitat we may be led to conclude that the woodcock population is 
not undergoing a sustained decline. 
The data herein summarized was gathered as in the past by numerous 
individuals, and sponsored by the respective state game departments. It 
has been summarized regionally by Victor Solman for Canada, Howard L. 
Mendall for the Northeastern States, P. Fe English for the Central 
Rastern States and John W. Aldrich for the Central Northern States. 
Bruce Wright in New Brunswick, Lytle H. Blankenship in Michigan, Stephen 
A. Liscinsky in Pennsylvania, and William Sheldon in Massachusetts have 
