
Wocdcock Migration Studies.--Following upon his most valuable 
contribution to banding of wintering woodcock, Leslie Glasgow has now 
summarized all recoveries of banded birds in an attempt to bring to 
light a general pattern of migration. It will be noted that, as these 
data are interpreted, there is less crossing over of populations which 
breed east of the Appalachians to wintering grounds in the southern 
Mississippi Valley than had previously been supposed, It appears from 
Dr. Glasgow's analysis that the wintering birds of the lower Mississippi 
bottomlands at least are predominantly from the central northern 
breeding grounds, 
Woodcock Breeding Ground Studies.--At the Massachusetts Cooperative 
Wildlife Research Unit, William Sheldon and his students are continuing 
their very significant, and so far unique studies of summer evening 
woodcock concentrations which seem to be part of a special feeding be- 
havior, These concentrations offer excellent opportunities for captur- 
ing the birds in Japanese mist nets and for furnishing data on age 
and sex ratios during the post-breeding season. 
Claude Z. Westfall and Robert B. Weeden, students at the University 
of Maine, published a description of plastic neck markers used on wood- 
cock with good effect to study movements of these birds on their breeding 
grounds. (Journ. Wildl. Mgt. 20:218-219, 1956.). 
This year for the first time an attempt has been made to stratify 
the woodcock populations in accordance with population density levels. 
Life zone boundaries as recently revised by the author (Ms.) were used 
as a trial basis for grouping (Map, Fig.l). It had been expected that 
considerable average difference would be found between the woodcock 
populations in the Alleghenian and Carolinean Zones, which together 
form the primary breeding area of the species. This did not prove to 
be the case however, The average birds per stop for the two zones are 
remarkably similar - 0.71 for the Alleghenian and 0.65 for the Carolinean, 
Therefore, if woodcock breeding density is different in these two zones, 
as casual observation would seem to indicate, it is masked by the method 
of selecting census routes. This is very likely the case, since the 
routes are not randomly located, but in most cases chosen by the observer 
on the basis of his knowledge of woodcock distribution. The true 
relationship of woodcock breeding densities in these two zones will not 
be known until compared on the basis of truly randomized distribution 
of routes, 
On the assumption that woodcock singing ground counts are repre- 
sentative of some unit of breeding ground area, an attempt has been 
made to weight the data on an area-density basis. The total land areas 
of states have been used as the trial units, Table 1 lists the average 
number of woodcock per stop for each state in which counts were made 
covering the years 1954, 1955 and 1956. These averages are multiplied 
by the total land area of the state where the samples were obtained to 
give a "breeding index" based on both the density and the area in which 
that density is supposed to apply. The weakness, of course, is that 
there is no uniformity, and in fact in many cases great dissimilarity, 
4. 
