Casual records.—The black-necked stilt has been reported from many of the eastern States but some of these are indefinite or otherwise unsatisfactory. Among those that are considered valid are Mississippi, Vicksburg, July 13, 1913; Alabama, Leighton, August 26, 1892; South Carolina, Sullivans Island, May, 1881 (possibly breeding); New Jersey, Stone Harbor, April 24, 1894, and Cape May, July 21, 1843; New York, Great South Bay, two taken, one in 1843; New Hampshire, Rye Beach, reported as taken several years previous to 1902; Maine, Rockland, one taken early in May, 1889; New Brunswick, Maces Bay, one in September, 1880; Iowa, Hawarden, one in 1890, Webster County, several in the summer of 1898; Wisconsin, Racine, April, 1847; North Dakota, Hankinson, July 29, 1921; Kansas, Wichita, one killed in 1906; and Nebraska, a few occurrences around Omaha in 1893, 1894, and 1895. One also was taken on San Nicholas Island of the Santa Barbara group, California, on May 25, 1897.
Egg dates.—California: 140 records, April 26 to August 4, 70 records, May 21 to June 8. Utah: 12 records, May 10 to June 24, 6 records, May 14 to 23. Texas: 23 records, April 17 to June 11; 12 records, April 26 to May 28. Florida: 90 records, April 14 to June 25; 45 records, April 14 to May 6.
Family SCOLOPACIDAE, Snipes and Sandpipers
SCOLOPAX RUSTICOLA Linnaeus
EUROPEAN WOODCOCK
HABITS
This fine large member of the snipe family is widely distributed in Europe and Asia and has occurred as a straggler in North America half a dozen times or more at various points from Newfoundland to Virginia.
Seton Gordon (1915) gives a very good idea of its distribution and migrations, as follows:
The principal summer home of the woodcock is the northern portion of the Old World, for it is found extending from eastern Siberia to the western extremity of Europe. The woodcock nesting in Kamschatka migrate to Japan with the advent of the cold weather, those frequenting Mongolia to China, while those which have nested in western Siberia and on the plateau of Tibet move down to Burma, India, Afghanistan, and Persia. Our own winter visitors are those birds which have bred in Scandinavia, Finland, and perhaps Russia. Those which press on south past our islands arrive in Palestine, in North Africa, and in Egypt. Throughout Russia the woodcock is found nesting, extending though in diminished numbers, as far south as the Caucasus and the Crimea. It also breeds in central France and in northern Italy. Some of its most distant nesting grounds are in Kashmir and Japan, while it has been found breeding in the Himalayas at the height of 10,000 feet. In the Faroe Islands it has occurred as a passing visitor and has also been recorded from Spitsbergen.
Courtship.—The same writer refers to a nuptial performance akin to the evening song flight of our woodcock, of which he says: