immediately threatened are doing decoy stunts of several
fascinating sorts. The favorite line of effort is the broken-leg
act, in which the bird collapses suddenly, as though one of its
little pipestem legs had snapped in two. The act is performed with
such sincerity, even when the bird is standing in only an inch or
so of water, that it never ceases to be amusing. Moreover, the
trick is repeated diligently every few feet, so that it begins to
look as though the bird had taken some fakir vow to prostrate
itself every third or fourth step. The avocet, now that one thinks
of it, does the same thing; but it does it awkwardly or, as it
were, cautiously, and so unconvincingly. It has manifestly copied
from its more agile neighbor. The second line of effort, most
faithfully pursued, is wing fluttering. In this, again, the stilt
is rather the mistress. It has perfected a trick of putting up one
wing at a time and letting the wind tousle it about, as though it
were really broken. Of course it also flutters both wings, and goes
through other nondescript flopping and fluttering performances,
such as are common to the family of shore birds.
_Voice._--My first impression of the note as heard on the breeding
grounds was recorded as a loud, guttural _whuck, whuck, whuck_; at other
times it has seemed harsh and shrill. Audubon (1840) referred to their
ordinary notes as "a whistling cry, different from the _cleek, cleek,
cleek_, which they emit when they have nests or young." C. J. Maynard
(1896), speaking of the breeding season, says: "The note at this time
was quite different from that given earlier in the season, as they now
uttered short syllables sounding like _put, put, put_, repeated rapidly,
that of the males being harsh, while the females gave it shriller and
more continuous."
_Fall._--Stuart T. Danforth (1925), who made some studies of a breeding
colony of stilts in Porto Rico, thus describes their departure in the
fall:
By the latter part of June the adults had begun to flock again, and
by the middle of September all the stilts at the lagoon (155 by
actual count) had formed one compact flock. This count was made on
September 17. By September 20 only about 50 were left; on September
23 there were 20; on September 27 and September 30, 16; on October
7, 5. After that none were seen.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--The United States, and Central and South America.
_Breeding range._--North to Oregon (Klamath Lake, Burns and Malheur
Lake); Utah (Brigham and Salt Lake City); Colorado (San Luis Lake and
Fort Garland); Louisiana (Black Bayou, Calcasieu, Abbeville, and
Vermilion Bay); and Florida (Titusville). East to Florida (Titusville,
Cape Canaveral, Kissimmee, Eden, and Lake Hicpoche); the Bahama Islands
(Andros, Inagua and Green Cay); Cuba (Manzanillo); Porto Rico (Guanica
lagoon); Venezuela (lagoon of Savonet and Curacao); Peru (Upper Ucayali
River); and probably Ecuador (Guayaquil). South to probably Ecuador
(Guayaquil); and probably the Galapagos Islands (Chatham and Albemarle
Islands). West probably, to the Galapagos Islands (Albemarle Island);
probably Nicaragua (Momotombo); probably Oaxaca (Tehuantepec);
Tamaulipas (Tampico and Matamoras); probably lower California (San
Quintin Bay); California (Santa Ana, Los Angeles, Castac Lake, Buena
Vista Lake, Alila, Tulare Lake, Fresno, Los Banos, Stockton, Sutter
County, and Tule Lake); and Oregon (Klamath Lake). There also is a
breeding record for Saskatchewan (Fort Qu'Appelle, June 13, 1894).
_Winter range._--The black-necked stilt is no doubt resident throughout
most or all of its breeding range in Central and South America. At this
season it has been detected north to lower California (San Jose del
Cabo, Santiago, and Cape San Lucas); Sinaloa (Mazatlan and Escuinapa);
Tamaulipas (Matamoras); Texas (Brownsville and Refugio County); rarely
Louisiana (Grand Chenier); Florida (Fort Myers); and Porto Rico.
_Spring migration._--Early dates of arrival are: California, Ojai, March
27, Daggett, April 10, Escondido, April 13, Stockton, April 13, Santa
Barbara, April 14, and Fort Crook, April 19, Oregon, Narrows, April 8,
and Malheur Lake, April 17; Arizona, Palo Verde, April 4; New Mexico,
State College, May 17, and Lake Buford, May 30; Colorado, Denver, May
5; Idaho, Rupert, April 28; and Montana, Billings, May 19. Migrants also
have been observed to arrive at points on the Gulf coast as Texas, Port
Lavaca, March 18; Louisiana, Sandfly Pass, March 16, and Vermilion Bay,
April 27; and Florida, Merritts Island, March 10, and Titusville, March
11.
_Fall migration._--Late dates of fall departure are: Oregon, Narrows,
October 26; California, Fresno, September 15, Tulare Lake, October 7,
Buttonwillow, November 13, and Riverdale, November 19; Utah, Ogden,
October 8; Colorado, Windsor, November 5; and New Mexico, Jornada,
September 25.
_Casual records._--The black-necked stilt has been reported from many of
the eastern States but some of these are indefinite or otherwise
unsatisfactory. Among those that are considered valid are Mississippi,
Vicksburg, July 13, 1913; Alabama, Leighton, August 26, 1892; South
Carolina, Sullivans Island, May, 1881 (possibly breeding); New Jersey,
Stone Harbor, April 24, 1894, and Cape May, July 21, 1843; New York, Great
South Bay, two taken, one in 1843; New Hampshire, Rye Beach, reported as
taken several years previous to 1902; Maine, Rockland, one taken early
in May, 1889; New Brunswick, Maces Bay, one in September, 1880; Iowa,
Hawarden, one in 1890, Webster County, several in the summer of 1898;
Wisconsin, Racine, April, 1847; North Dakota, Hankinson, July 29, 1921;
Kansas, Wichita, one killed in 1906; and Nebraska, a few occurrences
around Omaha in 1893, 1894, and 1895. One also was taken on San Nicholas
Island of the Santa Barbara group, California, on May 25, 1897.
_Egg dates._--California: 140 records, April 26 to August 4, 70 records,
May 21 to June 8. Utah: 12 records, May 10 to June 24, 6 records, May 14
to 23. Texas: 23 records, April 17 to June 11; 12 records, April 26 to
May 28. Florida: 90 records, April 14 to June 25; 45 records, April 14
to May 6.
Family SCOLOPACIDAE, Snipes and Sandpipers
SCOLOPAX RUSTICOLA Linnaeus
EUROPEAN WOODCOCK
HABITS
This fine large member of the snipe family is widely distributed in
Europe and Asia and has occurred as a straggler in North America half a
dozen times or more at various points from Newfoundland to Virginia.
Seton Gordon (1915) gives a very good idea of its distribution and
migrations, as follows:
The principal summer home of the woodcock is the northern portion
of the Old World, for it is found extending from eastern Siberia to
the western extremity of Europe. The woodcock nesting in Kamschatka
migrate to Japan with the advent of the cold weather, those
frequenting Mongolia to China, while those which have nested in
western Siberia and on the plateau of Tibet move down to Burma,
India, Afghanistan, and Persia. Our own winter visitors are those
birds which have bred in Scandinavia, Finland, and perhaps Russia.
Those which press on south past our islands arrive in Palestine, in
North Africa, and in Egypt. Throughout Russia the woodcock is found
nesting, extending though in diminished numbers, as far south as
the Caucasus and the Crimea. It also breeds in central France and
in northern Italy. Some of its most distant nesting grounds are in
Kashmir and Japan, while it has been found breeding in the
Himalayas at the height of 10,000 feet. In the Faroe Islands it has
occurred as a passing visitor and has also been recorded from
Spitsbergen.
_Courtship._--The same writer refers to a nuptial performance akin to
the evening song flight of our woodcock, of which he says:
Immediately after sunset the entire male woodcock population leave
their secluded haunts, and fly backwards and forwards over the same
line of country, uttering a peculiar cry unheard except during the
season of nesting. The notes may be termed the song of the males,
and are uttered by the birds previous to their departure for their
feeding grounds in the evening. The song commences with grunting
cries, ending up with a sharp and penetrating note repeated maybe
several times in quick succession, _pisick, pisick_. At times two
cock birds during their aerial maneuvers cross one another's path,
and then ensues a stern chase over the tree tops, the birds
uttering repeatedly their chirping cries. The "roding" of the
woodcock never takes place before the sun has set during the
earlier part of spring, but at a more advanced period, in May, the
birds commence their evening flights rather earlier. The flighting
is continued till deep twilight has settled over the glen, but
ceases before night. In the morning I, personally, have never heard
this "roding," but it is said to be recommenced before daybreak,
and to cease previous to full daylight. The woodcock when roding
does not fly repeatedly over the same part of the wood; there is an
interval between each of its appearances.
It is said to pass over the same country three times in the course
of the evening. On the first visit it flies high and usually fast;
on the second its progress is lower and more leisurely; while on
the third and last the bird moves just above the trees.
_Nesting._--In the southern portions of Great Britain the woodcock is a
very early breeder, many birds nesting in March and some in February.
Late nestings in July indicate the probability that two broods are
sometimes raised, though this is unusual among waders. Mr. Gordon (1915)
describes the nesting habits as follows:
The nesting ground is usually a wood, deciduous trees, being, I
think preferred, owing to the soft layer of fallen leaves covering
the ground. Close-grown plantations are rarely chosen as nesting
sites, and small belts of birch and oak are favorite nesting
grounds, provided that there is plenty of space between the trees.
It is my experience that the birds dislike dense cover in which to
nest; a few broken-down braken offer a suitable position, or the
bird may scrape out a hollow amongst the deep layers of fallen
beech and oak leaves which cover the ground beneath these trees.
The eggs usually number four, but at times only three are found.
Their ground color is normally buff colored, and they are liberally
spotted and blotched by dark reddish-brown markings. Nothing more
primitive than the nest of the woodcock can be found in the bird
world. It is merely a slight hollow scraped in the ground and
generally without intentional lining of any kind. The mother
woodcock often sits very hard on her eggs, especially if incubation
be far advanced, for she relies on the close harmonization of her
plumage with her surroundings. Sometimes I have been able to
approach to within a few feet of such a bird, and by not the
slightest movement did she betray that she was alive. As the result
of her early nesting, the woodcock has sometimes to cover her eggs
when snow lies around to a considerable depth.
Rev. Henry H. Slater (1898) says that the nest is "often at the foot of
a young Scotch fir, or other tree."
_Eggs._--The European woodcock usually lays four eggs, but as many as
six and even eight have been found in a nest, probably the product of
two birds. These are much like large eggs of the American woodcock. They
are about ovate in shape and have a slight gloss. The ground colors vary
from "deep olive buff" to "cream buff." They are usually sparingly, but
sometimes quite heavily, marked with irregular spots and small blotches.
The underlying markings, in light shades of drab are numerous and quite
conspicuous. Over these are varying amounts of spots and blotches of
light browns, ranging in color from "snuff brown" to "clay color."
Occasionally there are a few spots or scrawls of "bister" or "clove
brown" about the larger end. Herbert Massey (1913) describes the eggs as
follows:
The ground color ranges from the palest cream (nearly white)
through deeper cream to pale buff, yellow-buff, and the deepest
brown buff (many of the eggs of this latter type having a distinct
pink tone), speckled and spotted and blotched with yellow-brown,
dark brown, and purplish gray. As a rule, the eggs in the same set
are fairly uniform in the pattern of the markings, but occasionally
you get a set with one egg much more marked than the other three,
and in many cases you find two distinct shades of ground color in
the same set.
The measurements of 100 eggs, furnished by F. C. R. Jourdain, average
43.8 by 33.6 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure
=49= by 34.8, 44.9 by =36.4=, =40.2= by 34, and 43.1 by =31.6=
millimeters.
_Young._--Incubation lasts for 20 or 21 days and is performed by the
female only. The young remain in the nest but a short time, where they
are brooded by their mother and carefully tended by both parents.
Several good observers have seen the mother bird carry her young away
between her legs. Dresser (1871) quotes John J. Dalgleish as follows:
I have had on three occasions the good fortune to see the woodcock
in the act of carrying her young. On the first occasion the bird
rose from my feet one day in the month of June, in a thick coppice
cover in Argyllshire, and flew with her strange burden carried
between her thighs for about 30 yards, in the manner well described
in a note in Mr. Gray's Birds of the West of Scotland. On following
her she again rose, still carrying the young one, and flew into
some thick cover. On this and the next occasion, which was in
Perthshire, the birds uttered no cry; but the last time I witnessed
this curious habit, which was on the 5th of May last, the bird made
the peculiar cry alluded to in the note in Mr. Gray's work. On this
occasion I could observe the bird more distinctly, as it was in an
old oak cover, with very little underwood, where I discovered her.
On rising she flew from 35 to 40 yards, calling as above mentioned,
and then, alighting among some grass, seemed to flutter along,
still retaining hold of the chick. On raising her again, the same
maneuver was repeated, only that the distance flown each time was
greater, but always in the segment of a circle, as if she were
unwilling to leave the rest of the brood. On returning to the spot
where she rose at first, I discovered one of these, which was more
than half grown, the quill feathers being well formed, and must
altogether have formed rather a heavy burden. On taking it up, it
uttered a cry, which was at once responded to by the parent bird,
although the latter did not again take to wing from the bushes into
which it had ultimately flown.
Abel Chapman (1924) writes:
For many years a question used to be discussed as to woodcocks
carrying their young; but the matter never specially interested me,
until, on August 3, 1915, I happened to see it with my own eyes.
This was in Houxty wood, and since then I have witnessed the
performance on many occasions. During the war this wood was largely
felled for military purposes and the area thus cleared, and
subsequently replanted, has become a specially favored resort of
our long-billed friends. The annexed sketch, made there on June 15,
1920, shows exactly how the feat is accomplished. That particular
woodcock rose on the hillside a trifle above me, slowly flapping by
close in front, and looking back at me over her shoulder. What
first struck my attention was the curiously depressed tail, held
almost vertical; then the mother's feet, hanging down below;
finally the youngster, with its very short beak, pressed between
its parent's thighs. Since then I have witnessed many similar
exhibitions; indeed, in summer they are almost daily on view.
_Plumages._--The downy young of the European woodcock is thus described
in Witherby's (1920) Handbook:
Forehead and broad band over eye to nape light ochraceous buff, a
russet median streak from base of upper mandible to crown; crown
russet intermixed with light ochraceous buff, centre of nape
russet, sides light ochraceous buff; an irregular and interrupted
russet band from nape to uropygial tuft, another across wing; rest
of upper parts and sides of body with irregular bands and patches
of ochraceous buff and russet; from base of upper mandible to eye a
broad black-brown streak; a small patch of same behind eye; a patch
of russet on lower throat; rest of under parts light ochraceous
buff.
The juvenal plumage is therein fully described. It is much like the
adult, differing only in minor details, but can easily be recognized by
the looser or softer structure of the feathers. Practically all of this
plumage, except the primaries and secondaries, is replaced in the fall
by the first winter plumage, which is indistinguishable from the adult.
Adults have a complete postnuptial molt from July to December and a
partial prenuptial molt, involving nearly everything but the wings, from
February to May.
_Food._--Mr. Gordon (1915) refers to the feeding habits of the woodcock
as follows:
It feeds mainly by night on wet, boggy ground, and eats an enormous
quantity of worms; indeed, it may swallow almost its own weight of
food in the course of a single day. When the blackberries have
ripened the woodcock betake themselves to the hillsides and consume
great quantities of the fruit.
Mr. Slater (1898) says:
I have occasionally flushed woodcocks at night from wet rushy
fields, where they were doubtless probing the ground for worms and
larvae, occasionally turning over the droppings of cattle for
concealed beetles. But they also feed in woods to a certain extent,
turning the dead leaves over to find insects, etc. The accounts of
the extent of their appetites and of the amount of worms, etc.,
which they will put away at a sitting are surprising. These they
find in the earth with their bills, which are modified into a very
delicate organ of touch.
If the horny epidermis be removed, a number of small pits of a
hexagonal shape will be seen in the bone at the end of the bill,
remotely suggesting an incipient honey comb. In each one of these
pits a minute fibril of the olfactory nerve has its termination,
and by this means, when the bill is thrust into the soft, wet
soil, the slightest wriggle of the least living creature is
instantly telegraphed to the woodcock's sensibilities.
Witherby's Handbook (1920) includes the following items in its food:
Earthworms; also insects (coleoptera and their larvae, orthoptera
(_Forficula_) larvae of lepidoptera, etc.); small mollusca, etc. Grains
of maize recorded on one occasion in stomach, and mussels (_Mytilus_)
also said to be eaten, as well as small crustacea.
_Behavior._--Mr. Gordon (1915) says:
During its flight the bill of the woodcock is pointed downwards,
and the wings are not extended to their full stretch. It seldom
makes sustained flights, however, except on migration. During a
shoot at Alnick a woodcock was seen to alight on the ground and
then to throw leaves over its back, presumably to hide itself from
the guns. If so, it would seem that the woodcock is one of the most
sagacious of birds.
Selby (1833) writes:
The haunts selected by these birds, for their residence during the
daytime, are usually the closest brakes of birch and other brushy
underwood, and where the ground, from the deep shade, Is nearly
free from herbage; and, for this reason, thick fir plantations of
10 or 12 years' growth are a favorite resort. In woods that are
very extensive they are generally found, and abound most in
thickets by the sides of open glades, or where roads intersect, as
by these they pass to and from their feeding ground at evening and
in the dawn of the morning. Unless disturbed, they remain quietly
at roost upon the ground during the whole day, but as soon as the
sun is wholly below the horizon, they are in full activity, and
taking flight nearly at the same instant, leave the woods and cover
for the adjoining meadows, or open land, over which they disperse
themselves, and are fully engaged in search of food during the
whole night.
Mr. Slater (1898) observes:
It is well known that woodcocks follow certain routes to their
favorite feeding grounds in the evening, as they also have
preferences for certain woods and certain parts of woods to lie in
during the day. In short, they are very peculiar and fanciful in
their tastes, and are guided by circumstances not apparent to us in
their liking for one place rather than for another which seems to
our eyes to offer the same advantages. A wood above my father's
late house, in Northumberland, was a regular passing place for
cocks, and at dusk on any April or May evening a sight of half a
dozen at least was a certainty, as they passed rapidly above the
trees, announced, long before they themselves were visible, by
their peculiar half squeak, half whistle. I have here seen them
"tilting" in the air in the manner described by St. John and
others. It has been suggested that this tilting (at which time they
tumble and twirl about in the air in pairs and threes, apparently
prodding at one another with their bills) is connected with
pairing, but I can not think so, as I have witnessed it as late as
the end of May. I rather think it is pure playfulness, as of
children just out of school, after lying concealed and quiet most
of the day.
According to Yarrell (1871), woodcocks sometimes become exhausted and
fall into the sea on their migrations; but they do not always perish,
for he says:
A woodcock when flushed on the coast has been known to settle on
the sea, and when again disturbed rose without difficulty and flew
away. Numerous instances are recorded of woodcocks alighting on the
decks of ships in the English Channel and elsewhere. The rapidity
of flight of this bird is at times so great that a pane of plate
glass more than three-eighths of an inch thick has been smashed by
the contact, and one was actually impaled on the weather cock of
one of the churches in Ipswich.
_Fall._--Mr. Slater (1898), writing of the fall migration in Great
Britain, says:
Though many breed with us, there is a large migration from the
North in the late autumn. If the moon is full about the end of
October, they appear to come in a big "rush" then, but sometimes in
driblets as early as the end of September, as late as mid-November.
But their movements are largely influenced by the wind and
atmosphere as well as the moon; if the weather is foggy or they are
exhausted by a heavy contrary wind, they drop on the coast as soon
as they touch it, and large bags are sometimes made on the sand
hills by those on the lookout for them. If the wind is light and
weather clear, they seem to pass inland at once to favorite and
suitable covers. Should frost come--which drives the worms down,
and also prevents the birds from probing--cock move south and west.
Therefore, it is in our southwest counties, Wales and West Ireland,
where, owing to the Gulf stream frost and cold are seldom severe,
that the best woodcock shooting is to be had, after the seasonal
migration is over. Though they travel as a rule at night, and
chiefly at the time of the full moon, this is not invariably the
case; on October 28, 1881, I saw a woodcock come straight in from
the sea, 20 yards high, and pitch on a bare patch of shingle; this
was shortly before midday, and I thought it such an unusual
circumstance that I skinned the bird for my collection.
_Winter._--The woodcock is a winter resident as well as a migrant in
Great Britain. Dresser (1871) writes:
Their numbers are, of course, greatly augmented in the winter,
large numbers of immigrants being added to those which breed (as
after mentioned); indeed I am not sure whether all of those we have
in winter are immigrants, and that those which breed with us move
further south in pursuance of their migratory instinct; but this is
a point very difficult to discover. In the district I now allude
to, their numbers are much diminished on the appearance of severe,
frosty weather, when they appear to go to the coast, where they
find the feeding grounds more open; if, however, the frost be
slight, they remain.