I have occasionally flushed woodcocks at night from wet rushy fields, where they were doubtless probing the ground for worms and larvae, occasionally turning over the droppings of cattle for concealed beetles. But they also feed in woods to a certain extent, turning the dead leaves over to find insects, etc. The accounts of the extent of their appetites and of the amount of worms, etc., which they will put away at a sitting are surprising. These they find in the earth with their bills, which are modified into a very delicate organ of touch. If the horny epidermis be removed, a number of small pits of a hexagonal shape will be seen in the bone at the end of the bill, remotely suggesting an incipient honey comb. In each one of these pits a minute fibril of the olfactory nerve has its termination, and by this means, when the bill is thrust into the soft, wet soil, the slightest wriggle of the least living creature is instantly telegraphed to the woodcock's sensibilities. Witherby's Handbook (1920) includes the following items in its food: Earthworms; also insects (coleoptera and their larvae, orthoptera (_Forficula_) larvae of lepidoptera, etc.); small mollusca, etc. Grains of maize recorded on one occasion in stomach, and mussels (_Mytilus_) also said to be eaten, as well as small crustacea. _Behavior._--Mr. Gordon (1915) says: During its flight the bill of the woodcock is pointed downwards, and the wings are not extended to their full stretch. It seldom makes sustained flights, however, except on migration. During a shoot at Alnick a woodcock was seen to alight on the ground and then to throw leaves over its back, presumably to hide itself from the guns. If so, it would seem that the woodcock is one of the most sagacious of birds. Selby (1833) writes: The haunts selected by these birds, for their residence during the daytime, are usually the closest brakes of birch and other brushy underwood, and where the ground, from the deep shade, Is nearly free from herbage; and, for this reason, thick fir plantations of 10 or 12 years' growth are a favorite resort. In woods that are very extensive they are generally found, and abound most in thickets by the sides of open glades, or where roads intersect, as by these they pass to and from their feeding ground at evening and in the dawn of the morning. Unless disturbed, they remain quietly at roost upon the ground during the whole day, but as soon as the sun is wholly below the horizon, they are in full activity, and taking flight nearly at the same instant, leave the woods and cover for the adjoining meadows, or open land, over which they disperse themselves, and are fully engaged in search of food during the whole night. Mr. Slater (1898) observes: