. The American sportsman: . nly during thehours of twilight or moonlight, but that, from the peculiar positionand construction of their eyes, they are far better calculated tomove about at these times than any other. The darker and more dense the covert, the better is it suited forthe haunt of woodcocks, as, their eyes being so very large andset so far back in the head, they are enabled to collect every faintray of light which penetrates through the thickest and most en-tangled foliage: and in such places they may be seen runningabout and feeding during the bright sunshine. There is no bird of
. The American sportsman: . nly during thehours of twilight or moonlight, but that, from the peculiar positionand construction of their eyes, they are far better calculated tomove about at these times than any other. The darker and more dense the covert, the better is it suited forthe haunt of woodcocks, as, their eyes being so very large andset so far back in the head, they are enabled to collect every faintray of light which penetrates through the thickest and most en-tangled foliage: and in such places they may be seen runningabout and feeding during the bright sunshine. There is no bird of which country-people are more ignorantthan of the woodcock, as they are seldom seen by any except thosewho go in quest of them in their wet and often dreary haunts; andthe confiding and inquisitive sportsman will often be led astray ifhe listens to the silly reports of our agriculturists respecting them,and perhaps find himself on the track of a company of sandpipers,woodpeckers, or other less dainty and interesting FOOD. This timid and unsocial occupant of our woody delves and rankmarshes does not, as is erroneously supposed by many, live by meansof suction; but their food is composed of worms and several spe- 218 lewiss amekican sportsman. cies of larvae, which they find concealed under the leaves and turfof the thickets, as well as in the open bogs. Some sportsmenassert that when cocks are feeding they strike their long bills intothe soil, and then, raising their bodies high on their feet, they opentheir wings and flutter round and round until they have sunk theirbills sufficiently far into the ground to reach their prey. We donot know positively whether cocks perform these rather singulargyrations, or, more artistically speaking, pirouettes, but mustconfess that we are rather dubious on the subject, as, with ourliberal opportunities of observing the habits of game-birds, wehave never yet been able to discover a woodcock thus employed,although on one occasion in par
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjecthunting, bookyear1885
