Indiana Game. THE WOODCOCK. This bird, so universally known to our sportsmen, is well represented in the plate. It arrives in the Central States in March, and if the weather is mild, even earlier, and stays till the first frosts forebode the approach of winter. It is sometimes found here in December, and it may be that in mild winters some of these birds remain until spring. During the day the woodcocks keep to the woods, or wooded swamps and thickets; toward evening they usually fly out in the broad open glades, which lead through the woods, or to meadows and swampy places in the neighborhood. A carefully hidden observer can see the woodcock pushing his long bill under the decayed leaves and turning them over, or boring one hole close to another in the damp soft ground, as deep as his soft flexible bill will permit, to get at the larvæ, bugs or worms hidden beneath. In a similar manner he examines the fresh cowdung, which is soon populated by a multitude of larvæ of insects. He never tarries long at any place. Larvæ of all kinds of insects and naked snails, especially angleworms, form his principal food. If in hot seasons his favorite resorts in watery recesses inland are generally dried up, he descends to the marshy shores of our large rivers. The female woodcock usually begins to lay in April; the nest is built in a quiet, retired part of the wood, frequently at the roots of an old stump; it is constructed of a few withered leaves and stalks of grass put together with but little art. The eggs are four or five in number, about an inch and a half long, and about an inch in diameter, tapering suddenly at the small end; they are of a dun clay color, thickly marked with brown spots-particularly at the large ends the spots are interspersed with others of a very pale purple. The young woodcocks, when six or ten days old, are covered with down of a brownish white color, and are marked from the bill along the crown to the hind head with a broad stripe of deep brown; another line of the same color curves under the eyes and runs to the hind head; another stripe reaches from the back to the rudiments of the tail, and still another extends along the sides under the wings. The throat and breast are considerably tinged with rufous, and the quills at this age are just bursting from their light blue sheaths, and appear marbled as on the old birds. When taken, they utter a long, clear, but very feeble "peep," not louder than that of a mouse. They are, on the whole, far inferior to young partridges in running and skulking. The woodcock is a nocturnal bird, seldom stirring about before sunset, but at that time, as well as in the early morning, especially in the spring, he rises by a kind of spiral course to great heights, uttering now and then a sudden "quack." Having gained his utmost height he hovers around in a wild, irregular manner, producing a sort of murmuring sound, and descends with rapidity in the same way he arose. The head of the woodcock is of very singular conformation, somewhat triangular, and the eyes set at a great distance from the bill, and high up in the head; by this means he has a great range of vision. His flight is slow; when flushed at any time he rises to the height of the bushes or underwood, and usually drops down again at a short distance, running off a few yards as soon as he touches the ground. The male woodcock is ten inches and a half long, and sixteen inches in extent; bill of a brownish flesh color, black towards the tip, the upper mandible ending in a slight knob, that projects about one-tenth of an inch beyond the lower, each grooved, and in length somewhat more than two inches and a half; forehead, line over the eye and whole lower parts, reddish tawny; sides of the neck inclining to ash; between the eye and bill a slight streak of |