. The Canadian field-naturalist. /I. B C Woodcock—Skull. Showinz both the ear and the articulation of the spinal veriebrse on line A. in front of the eye, S. C. is the point whence the vertebra: would normally spring. "The skull itself, together with a sketch and a few words of description, I sent to the Field, in which paper the note appeared a week or two later, the Editor confirming its accuracy. The second sketch shows the curious "flutings", or corrugations, on the sternum of a woodcock. What purpose (if any) they serve is ; It might have been supposed that wit
. The Canadian field-naturalist. /I. B C Woodcock—Skull. Showinz both the ear and the articulation of the spinal veriebrse on line A. in front of the eye, S. C. is the point whence the vertebra: would normally spring. "The skull itself, together with a sketch and a few words of description, I sent to the Field, in which paper the note appeared a week or two later, the Editor confirming its accuracy. The second sketch shows the curious "flutings", or corrugations, on the sternum of a woodcock. What purpose (if any) they serve is ; It might have been supposed that with Abel Chapman's discovery the climax had been reach- ed, and that there was nothing further to be said, but can "finis" ever be written to the history of this most extraordinary bird? As recently as 1926 we have Dr. Cushman Murphy's^", interest- ing account of a "strutting" Woodcock, which reads, in part, as follows: "The strutting of Woodcocks with spread tails has been mentioned by several observers, but I find no reference to the use of the tail as a lure to lead interlopers from the nest. This how- ever, seems to have been the clear intention of an incubating bird observed at Bronxville, , on various dates between April 10, 1926, and the hatching of the four eggs on April 20. She (assuming that it was the female) would allow us to come within a few feet before leaving her well concealed position. Then she would spring from the nest, pitch on the ground close by, and, standing with the tail toward us, would raise and spread it so as to show to full ad- vantage the double row of glistening white spots at the ends of the rectrices, and under coverts. Next, flashing this striking banner slowly, she would move oiif among the trees in the attitude of a strutting turkey cock, stopping when we refused to follow, and then tripping ahead for a few steps, all the while bleating softly. The effect was astonishing; the ordinary low visibility of a wo
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