File:Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting (14746760851).jpg

Identifier: usefulbirdstheir01forb (find matches)
Title: Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Forbush, Edward Howe, 1858-1929 Massachusetts. State Board of Agriculture
Subjects: Birds Birds
Publisher: (Boston, Mass.)
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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aises its wdngs highover its back, stretches them, and then folds them in place. As the law now protects this bird at all times, it is to behoped that its numbers will increase, as it is one of the mostvaluable birds of the field. It is an indefatigable insecthunter, living very largely on such insects as grass-eatingcaterpillars and grasshoppers. American Woodcock.FhiluhLia minor. Length. —Ten to twelve inches; bill nearly three inches. Adult. — Upper parts brown and russet or buff, mixed with gray and marked withblackish; back of head black, barred with yellowish ; dark line from eye tobill; under parts pale, warm brown, varying in intensity ; tail black, tippedwith white; eye large, well back and high up. Nest. — On ground in moist land. Eggs. — Large, buff-colored, with chocolate and stone-gray spots and markings. Season. —March to November; rare in winter. This favorite game bird was once a common summer resi-dent of this State, but is now becomino: rare in the breeding
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BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 337 season. It feeds in low, swampy woodland, l)oring in themud for worms, and also in low pastures, where it destroysmany insects. In late summer it often goes to the uplands,where it feed.s in cornfields, asparagus fields, fruit gardens,and pastures. At such times the bird may be seen amongthe currant bushes or yegetables, where in early morning itfeeds with the Robins. When suddenly flushed it sometimesrises with a tremulous whistling sound, similar to that madeby the wings of the Mourning Dove. Although in summerit frequents fields, gardens, and pastures, it sometimes for-sakes them in very dry weather for the wooded shores ofponds or rivers. The Woodcock evidently feeds much atnight or during the dusk of morning and evening, whenit is almost always active. When startled in the daytimeit is normally sluggish, and rises just over the tops of thebushes or undergrowth, flutters a short distance, and alights ;but late in the fall a strong bird that has been

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