Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-07-19

81 have heard many stories about how the
~oodcock finds worms" continued the hunter
as he took long puff at his cigar. ''but about
the funniest one / ever heard was that told by
an old Charles county farmer. He held that
the bird after boring several holes in the
ground would rush them with wings
dropped so as to scrape the ground This he
said produced a sound similar to that of rain
and the worms, thinking that it was raining.
would come out of the holes. when the
woodcock would grab them. There is one
popularity Of the bird that have failed to
mention and that is its secretiveness, and there
are very few hunters who have ever found the
nest Of a woodcock. During the breeding sea-
son the bird utters peculiar sound, which
resembles something like 'kwank.'
PECULIAR POSITION.
IL have seen the bird when in the act of
emitting this sound and / was struck with the
peculiar position he got himself into He
seemed to exert himself to produce this note
TO his utmost capacity: bis head was inclined
toward the ground and he made a strong for
ward movement Of his body simultaneously
with the emission 1.-THE sound; then he listened
and repeated the sound again. The birds are
of n fine favor and much priced by epicures
throughout the world The way hunt them
Is with a cocker spaniel You know these spe-
cies of dogs can go through any amount of tan
gled underbrush. man should provide him
self with pair of waterproof boots. The birds
will be found generally in marshy woodland
and when they get up make peculiar singing
sound sportsman must be a good shot to
bag them, for they are up and gone before you
have time to think. The season does not last
long. for on the first approach of hard weather
the birds migrate, although / have seen
woodcoek throughout a mild winter"
THE SUMMER DUCK.
But how about summer ducks?" asked the
reporter. Are they ready to shoot yet?''
No. The season for summer ducks opens
about September l. Just now the young are
no larger than chickens Just Matched. In fact,
this could be called the end of the breeding
season. have just returned from a little trip
down the river. One day last week took my
skin and padded up one of the many creeks
along the Potomac to see how summer ducks
were getting along. Leaving the skiff securely
tied got ashore and moved carefully along
the bank of the river 20 where l had seen a
duck ny in. As approached tree 1 heard a
great chatter. Crawling on nv hands and
knees TO the edge of the bluff hid myself be-
hind tree and waited to locate the SCUM ds
Pretty soon i heard them again, and looking To
my right / saw a full-grown summer duck with
nice flock Of little ducklings. 1 thought as
looked on that picture that il was the pretties,
Il had ever seen The little fellows had never
been In the water before evidently for they
spattered and shook their little downy wings az
though they were Just liberated. / watched
the ducks until the sun had nearly gone down
when, TO my surprise, / saw the old duck graf
each little one IN turn by the nap of the bach
or by the wings and rising fly into the woods
This was continued until the whole family had
been transported / had often heard that this
was one OF the peculiarities OF the summer
duck. but this the first chance had ever
had Of seeing them