Lake Umbagog. 1909. June 20. At evening Chapman and I walked to the Tyler Bay. As we Woodcock were following a wood road over the crest of the hill on the old And Young. Abbott Farm we started a Woodcock from the path. She flew only a few yards and then began beating her wings on the ground at the same time keeping up a low mewing not unlike that of a Cat-bird. This was evidently designed to attract our notice to her and to lead us away from her young. We stood still and she soon ceased fluttering and began to run about, uttering a wholly different sound, very duck-like in character and closely resembling the low conversational quacking that Black Ducks make when a number are feeding in company. This we inter- preted as a note of warning to the young, bidding them keep still. We could find only one of them, a bird as large as a Bluebird, still cover- ed with down but with the wing quills sprouting. It sat on the ground in the path with head and neck up like a bird on the nest—a marvellous— ly beautiful little creature. Not a muscle did it move when we stoop- ed low over it. We kept motionless not far off for several minutes but the mother would not come to it. When we returned twenty minutes later it and the mother had disappeared. 89