Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1884 — How Woodcock Woo. [ARTICLE]

How Woodcock Woo.

Woodcock have certain peculiarities which endear them to tlie sportsmen, as well as make them an interesting study to men of science. Their lovemaking is essentially their own. Early in the spring the male bird, seeking a mate, repairs to some well-known covert where the females most do oon-

gregate. It is just at sunset. All day long he has been ifidustriously filling himself fall of long, luscious worms, and as nightfall comes his bird though! turns to affairs more sentimental. When he reaches the parade ground he looks anxiously around, and if no suspicious noise jars on his sensitive ears he begins with a low, introductory overture. Then he grows impatieni and utters loud, guttural bleatings, clucking just before each one. Then he struts up and down the mossy bank as if his performance gave him intense satisfaction. Then he considers himself fairly introduced, and, taking wing, rises in the air, flying up in spiral circles, each growing smaller as he ascends. During this flight he utters a low, sweet, cooing note. After sailing about in a series of aerial somersaults, he swoops down to the spot of his starting. For hours he fools about, displaying his wing performances, until at last the female can no longer resist his antics, and throwing coquetry, as Hamlet did the physic, to the dogs, she approaches with ruffled feathers and disheveled plumage. The two meet and caress each other with every evidence of affection and all the by-plays of love thrown in, and locking their long bills in each other’s grasp, as if too happy for earth, they rise straight in the aii and tty far out of sight in the darkness. —Cincinnati Enquirer.