The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-08-30
THE WOODCOCK.
He's Bird for Sure, and a Queer
 One
(Archibald Rutledge in collier's)

Archibald Rutledge in Collier's)
 The woodcock owes his survival in large measure to the secrecy of his haunts and the mystery of his flight. He is, when on the wing in a thicket, a complete mystery to many sports ed, and to hit one is to be astonish- ed. The frequent eccentricities of a woodcock's flight are due as much as anything else to the shape of its bill. It is an awkward appendage to have to look out for in the brush. Un- road before him, which is very sell dom, woodcock's rise Is apt to be as abrupt and startling as his descent.
 Also, if the cover he most desires should happen to lie behind you. he is quite likely to hurtle gracefully over your head, setting your nervous system all out of gear. The best shot at woodcock is usually afford ed when he reaches the apex of his rise-and-fall maneuver. To a care less observer this splendid game-bird might appear to have a clumsy and slovenly flight. His serene and grandfatherlike air is against our suspecting him of being capable of joy-riding. Towering through the sunlight-tinted brake on whistling wings, he would seem to be fair mark for an average shot. But, for tunately. it Is not so. Woodcock shooting in a real thicket is about as fast form of outdoor sport as ex- ists. That wonderful flight of his has ail the swiftness of the quail, all the amazing abruptness of the pheasant and all the sudden dips and enigmatic zigzags of the Wilson snipe.
 The woodcock is one of the most beautiful and one of the most inter esting of all the game-birds; yet his nature and characteristics are diffi- cult of observation, for his haunts are obscure, his manner of life eccentric, and his habits nocturnal. He and the owl seem to have something in common; but where the owl is sim ister and forbidding. the woodcock is innocent and inviting.
 Woodcock are found generally dis tributed over the eastern part of North America, from Labrador and Manitoba southward to the Gulf of Mexico. They usually winter from lower Illinois and Virginia southward, although a very cold snap is apt to carry the whole flight to the far south. While their favorite breed ing grounds are north of the latitude of Washington, District of Columbia they are not infrequently found nest ing throughout the whole course cov- cred by their migration, and have been known to rear broods as far south as Charleston, South Carolina Since the woodcock belongs to the snipe family, he naturally seeks wooded swamps, bushy water courses and thickets deep in leaf-mold, where he can turn over leaves or thrust his long bill into the easy soil in search of grubs and larva. By day they in variably seclude themselves in woods offering heavy cover; by night they are often flushed in the open; by pools of water where a swamp cross es a road, in paths leading through fields and on the friable loam of new ly plOwed land.
 Except in the late spring and ear ly summer, woodcock seldom have a regular range in any given locality They are among the most indepen- dent of the migrants; and they are unique in that they never really cease migrating, but are continually on the move. One week the swamps of New Jersey may be full of them; another week, and the same flight. for no other reason than a slight fall in tenn perature, will be boring assiduously in the morasses of southern Georgia. This very element of uncertainty con tributes largely to the glamour of woodcock shooting. In certain local ities. notably in Michigan and South Carolina, woodcock are plentiful enough and their whereabout sure enough to warrant gunners going out after them alone; but by the average sportsman the woodcock is come up- on unawares, is an object of great de sire and lory. and is the chief or nament of the days bag.