Woodcock

During the day the WOODCOCK sits quietly in a shadowy retreat, usually in swamps but often in open upland woods. It may be flushed in "slashings" where will be found the "form" of old leaves where it had nestled. 'The swampy coverts which "Mr. Big-eyes" prefers are clean, sweet localities, where elders and willows like to grow. The bird is by no means confined to such resorts for it may be found nesting well up in the hills, altho even there a favorite resort generally is not far away, to which it travels in the evening and forages for its nocturnal supper. Often I have seen it against the fading west, bound for its own particular restaurant. Even after night had fallen its familiar scape could be heard.

Some of our birds are enveiled in mystery and the Woodcock is not the least strange of this coterie. It often lives where its presence is unsuspected. One of the best Woodcock coverts I have known was within the limits of the old city of Brooklyn. Fortunately this knowledge was not shared by others, so the birds were little hunted. Into this retreat they would come silently some April night and from it they would disappear some October day as mysteriously.

The flight is swift altho short, sometimes accompanied by a clattering sound, at others as silent as an owl's. I have frequently seen them collide with limbs when flushed. This may be due to the fact that these birds' eyes are placed far back in the head or it may be be cause they are watching the intruder and cannot look forward and backward at the same time.

Mother Woodcock has a curious and interesting habit of flying off, when disturbed, with a young chick grasped between her feet or between her thighs. If she has opportunity she will convey all her babies, one at a time, to a place of security.

At courting time, and all thru the period of incubation, the male indulges in a peculiar aerial dance. Soon after sunset he whirls up in spirals, chirping and twittering, to a height of fifty or sixty feet, then circles horizontally and descends, giving voice to his ecstasy in a continuous "cheeping" until he reaches the ground where he struts like a tiny turkey-gobbler, with drooping wings and upright spread tail, changing his notes to a series of rather hard paiks. On moonlit nights I have listened to this serenade until after nine o'clock.

A dish of angleworms hardly can be considered appetizing but, transmuted in the Woodcock's interior machinery (he is really one hundred per cent. angleworm), there seems to be no difference of opinion among epicures when the bird is brought on toast to the table.

The Woodcock's diet also includes in considerable quantities such harmful insects as the crane fly ("leather jacket") and various species of more or less destructive grasshoppers. To this extent its feeding habits are of distinct benefit to man.