The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-05-02
THE WOODCOCK AND IT'S
YOUNG.

will have a chance to picture the female
woodcock sitting upon her nest, if they
can find it, The man who does this
will have cause to plume himself and
strut among his fellows of the lens,
because not a -halfdozen photographs
of the kind have been made since
Daguerre lived and wrought.
OF all nests that OF the woodcock is
most difficult to discover In fact a
man may flush a woodcock hen every
day for a week and never find nest.
SO thick is the underground in
which these nests are placed that the
bird is never seen until we'll in the air,
and so cunningly does the nest match
other tangled masses of twigs, leaves,
&C., that distinguishing it is more
matter of chance than skill. Tue jack
snipe, the quail, the prairie chicken
and the ruffed grouse are all expert
hiders, but not worthy to be mentioned
in the same day with The woodcock,
which not only inhabits densely-cov-
cred territory but mastered the entire
science of protective coloration CEN
turies ago.
No sitting woodcock was ever yet
discovered except by its large black
eyes. These eyes are set so high in
the head that the bird is able to see
| behind it as we'll as in front, and it is
gone, generally noiselessly, long before
the intrnder's heavy foot has ap-
preached within ten yards of it.
There have been woodcock nests
found, plenty of them, through the
accident of hunters or fishermen step
ping within six inches of them, but
always were empty save for three or
four mottled eggs.
The female will not pretend to be
broken-winged in order to lure the
searcler from the vicinity OF its nest, =,
though it will do this almost invariably
if its young are threatend. In the
case of the chicks this act would seem
to be unnecessary, because the instinct
to hide is batched in them and they
are as expert when one day ont of the
shell as they will ever be.
They are then not larger than the
first joint of Il mans thumb, and follow
closely behind the mother in the search
Tor food. When danger threatens she
gives sharp, short cluck and is away
heavily and clumsiIy, making not more
than one yard at leap and falling
awkwardly to the ground after each
attempt.
Meanwhile the youngsters in the
twinkling of an eye have disappeared
utterly. They have not run yard
they have simply crouched, matched
themselves with any brown object,
blended with it, melted into it.
This instantaneous disappearance is
startling. The man may have his eye
firmly fixed on the Aedgings; then
they 90 out of his eye are not.
Ii he proceeds to the place where
he last saw them and is not extremely
careful he vii! step on one or two OF
them and they will never stir, suffering
themselves to be mashed fiat. By
kneeling, however, and turning over
dead leaf after dead leaf he is apt to
uncover one or more of them, buried
sometimes in depression not larger
than an acorn's grave, the little body
reduced to the smallest possible com
pass, but the black eye wide open.
When uncovered the midget will at
tempt to dart away.
1t is disputed that the woodcock
ever carries its young, but it does do
this when the obstable is not serious
for instance, a small creek a yard or
two wide. 1t has two ways Of dong
it. Sometimes it will take one between
its strong thighs and tlirt across the
water with it; sometimes little one
will perch upon the mothers back.
A female wo )kcock has been known
to transport its four young over thick
ly grown fence with a ditch running
along it, taking them up between its
thighs. 1t never attempts to carry
one in its long bill, differing in this
from wood-duck, which uses its bill in
lifting its young from the nest to the
ground at the foot of the tree, whence,
they arc permitted to waddle to the
water as they best can.
Naturalists generally credit the
woodcock hen with producing from
three to four young in season, but
hens have been found with FROM ten to
twelve chicks. Sometimes their rude
yet scientific nests are filled with eggs
In the woodcock family the gray
mare is the better horse, so to speak.
She is always larger and stronger
than the male. 1t is believed that du-
ring incubation lie takes his turn at
sitting while his wife forages. At any
rate, he is never a great distance from |;
the nest until the chicks are led forth !
Joel saw you at the opera with !
Miss hyperion last night. Shes GER
tainly beauty, but entirely toe re-
served for me.