The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-09-25
LITTLE STORIES OF ANIMALS.
Mrs. Woodcock and the Inquisitive
Neutrality-suspicious. Outwltted.
From the Nefr York Sun.

| Man-W OOQpeCkerS OuLWlLLSO-
From the Net0 York Sun.
SCRANTON, Sept 20-While Silas J.
Lambert of Ransom township was tramp
ing across a piece of marshy land on
Farmer W. d. Stevens place last spring a
female woodcock auttered out of thicket
almost directly ahead Of him, ran along on
| the ground only a few feet beyond his
reach, and tapped her wings as though they
| were too weak for her to use in flight. The
| bird appeared to have been hurt so badly
that she could not rise more than foot or
| 50, and Lambert chased her up and tried to
catch her. Very limp and partially dis
abled as she apparently was, the woOdcock
kept Just far enough in front Of Lambert
not to let him touch her with his fingers
and whenever he made dash at her she
fiuttered over the tops Of the bushes and
dropped TO the ground few yards away,
seeming to have hardly strength enough left
TO take her another foot. Lambert thought
he was surely going to catch her, but when
he had got his band within a few inches Of
her tail the woodcock appeared to make "a
great effort to fly, and managed TO dutter
OUT OF his reach.
She did this four or five times, and Lam
bert became encouraged and continued to
follow her. There were plenty of hiding
places all along, but the wocdcock did not
attempt to secrete herself, and Lambert
said he wondered at it. After he had fol-
10 y cd her in vain for several rods, the
dreadtully sick bird got well in an instant,
gathered herself together in no time, and
shot out OF sight like an arrow. 1t then
occurred to Lambert that he had heard of
birds pretending TO be lame and nearly
ready 70 die. in order to lead persons away
from their nests, and he came 10 the conclu-
alon that the mother woodcock had fooled
him nicely.
He mad been very much interested in the
birds movements up to the time that she
had darted out of sight so suddenly, and,
desiring to see whether she had flown back
to the spot from which he had scared her
up, he cautiously retraced his steps and
looked around for her. For two lor three
minutes he got no glimpse of the woodcock,
but all at once she appeared on the ground,
and he couldn't tell which way she had
come. Immediately the woodcock again
acted as if she was all played out, and,
again Lambert chased her, and tried to
catch her. This time she led him little to
the right OF the former course, and she took
good care not to let him get aay nearer
than before. Suddenly the bird darted
from his line of vision, and Lambert ran
back to the spot with the determination of
finding the watchful woodcock's nest if pos
sible.
She wasn't anywhere to be seen and Lam
poiL puucQ MS COlidT lay QOWn D0DlDQ q
los and peered over it. He had lain there
quite while without seeing any signs of
the bird, when all of a sudden there was
dark, fash-like movement, and something
struck him in the corner of his left eye and
came within quarter of an inch of putting
his eye out 1t was the woodcock's pointed
bill that had hit him, and when he arose the
angry bird darted at his face again. She
was protecting her little home to the best of
her ability, and Lambert quickly made up
his mind that it was none of his business
where her nest was, and fastened away
On Isaac II. Casper's farm, near Wyaln-
sing, red-headed woodpcckers fairly
swarmed while the cherry crop lasted this
summer. The vigorous birds devoured lots
of the fruit on the spot, aud carried large
quantities away to their nesting places, and
they soon got TO be such a pest that Farmer
Casper was obliged to put check on their
destructive habits. He hated to kill the
handsome and cheerful birds, but he wanted
a few of the cherries for his own use, and
he thought he would see if he couldn't stop
the havoc without Strengthening the winged
cherry thieves He noticed that the wood
peckers never flew among the limbs until
after they had alighted in the trunk and
pecked around a SPELL and he got lot of
| poles that were taller than the cherry trees,
| hosted pole among the branches of each
tree, rested the butt on the ground, and let
several feet stick out above the topmost
twigs The woodpeckers soon got in the
notion of clinging to the upper ends of the
poles before they made a raid on the cher
ries, and while they were in that attitude
Farmer Casper played them a trick The
moment he saw one of the woodpeckers
| aight on the side of a pole he ran under the
tree with the ak, hit the pole as hard as he
could on the opposite side from that on
which the bird was clinging, and then
jumped from under the boughs to watch
the result. The sudden blow with the head
OF the ak invariably stunned the wood
pecker and made it tumble to the ground,
and before it had had a chance to come to
its senses again Farmer Casper had picked
it up and put it into a basket. In this way
he captured three or four dozen wood
peckers inside of fortnight. None of the
birds were injured much by the fall, aud
Farmer Casper didn't kill single one.
He kept the whole flock in confinement I'M
til the cherry crop had been gathered, feed
ing them on stuff that was worth good
deal less than his prime oxhearts, and then
| he selected two of the haudsomest for pets,
and turned the rest loose