Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1881-05-31
A Study of The WOOdcock.

| Maurice thompson in the Chicago Tribune
There is no common game-bird whose hab-
| its and manners are SO imperfectly understood
| by sportsmen and naturalists as those of the
| American woodcock. The Cripple or marsh
| thickets in which the bird is usually found,
| as well as the seminocturnal life of the bird
| itself, render its study matter of great diff
| Guilty. For a number of years I have ex-
| hausted every means to acquire, by personal
observation, acorrect knowledge of the wood
cocks habits, and here give such notes as
| seem to be new, along with general descrip-
| ton of the birds mode of life. Wilson and
Herbert have given the most reliable general
descriptions, but they, together with Audu-
bon and others, have overlooked some quite
characteristic attitudes, and 1 have nowhere
found any suggestion, in the sketches of our
artists, of cert lin habits peculiar to the
bird. On number of occasions have close
ly observed the woodcocks system of teleg-
raphy. The birds mandibles are furnished
with extremely sensitive nerves, arranged
that when the point of the bill rests upon
the ground the slightest sounds are conveyed
to its brain. Standing upon the water-satu-
rated earth of a spouty bog; our bird utters
faint, keen cry, scarcely audible at two rods
distance, then Immediately let's fall his head
till the tip of his bill touches the ground and
listens attentively. If his mate hears him she
replies, puts her bill on the ground and lis
tens in turn. So the love messages go back
and forth as long as the birds have anything
to say. This sort of thing usually happens
in the soft twiights from May to the middle
of August, though occasionally have seen
and heard it in the broad light of a summer
day. To-day sketched woodcock in the lis
tening attitude Shall try to get further
studies.
Five years later 1 succeeded in getting
three more sketches and last year (1sSO) L got
four more. Many of these and kindred
sketches have been obtained at the end of in
describable care and labor. The woodcock is
SO shy, SO attentive, so sensitive, that the
least sound will cause it to skulk and hide-a
thing it does with even greater cunning and
success than the quail The only way in
which ever have been able to get near
enough to the bird to sketch it's natural atti-
tudes has been to crawl on the wet ground
through tangled weeds and shrubs until I
reached a hiding place on the border of its
feeding range, and there patiently and silent
ly watch for its coming. This have done
over and over again for days together before
getting a single sight of the bird. The wood
cock in captivity is little like the wild, wary
bird of our springy or spouty lands. His at
titudes and modes of feeding are, when
cramped in a cage, lifeless and utterly differ
ent from those of the active fellow you pur-
sue in the exasperating cripple of his wild
haunts. A sketch of Osceola in prison and a
picture of him in the freedom of the ever
glades would compare together just as a
sketch of captive and picture of a free
woodcock would contrast with each other.
In hunting with the long bow, have usually
killed the woodcock on the ground, it being
almost impossible to shoot him on the wing
with this weapon. And SO it has happened
that another of the birds peculiar attitudes
has come under my observation. When flush
ed, his fight is strong, but rather short.
When he lights he runs a little distance and
squats fiat, usually with his tail toward you
Then, in order to see or scent you easily, he
throws back his head SO that his bill stands
up vertically and his eyes shine like black
beads just above the butts of his wings If
the day is a little dark he will see You before
you see him and will spring into the air at
once. On the other hand, if the day is bright
and you have the wind of him, you may get
close upon him before he flies. He often
erects his bill thus while standing, and some
times the mandibles will be separated if about
to utter cry. The woodcock while feeding
is very active and agile. Groups often are to
be seen on weedy, loamy spots in the neigh
borhood of woodland springs, where each
bird is intent upon extracting from the wet
soil the worms, grubs and aquatic larvae which
their in abound. I know a sheer bluff, whose
top is carpeted with blue grass and shaded
by giant pin-oak overlooking abit of sprou-
ty land, where broad leaved weeds and rank
water grasses grow IN bright tufts or tus.