woodcock

• One day we happened to be eating woodcock, and I could not help praising the dish in the style of the true gourmand. —  Florence to Trieste
• The woodcock is a very handsome bird with its dark mottled brown plumage, long bill, and large, full, black eyes. —  Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children
• In vain did the worms seek concealment; when the woodcock was hungry it discovered them by the smell, stuck its beak into the ground, but never higher than the nostrils, drew them out singly, and raising its bill into the air, it extended upon it the whole length of the worm, and in this way swallowed it smoothly without any action of the jaws. —  Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children
• Yes, I do not think it is possible in every case to tell the difference; the male bird is smaller than the female of the same age, and there are slight differences in the colour of the plumage, but as you may meet with birds of different ages, and as woodcocks are much subject to variation of plumage, it is difficult to pronounce whether this woodcock is a male and that a female Oh, papa, what are these ring-marks on the end of this bit of timber upon which we are sitting?" —  Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children
• But you will have the day for the woodcock, and bring us home a great many, I hope. —  Queechy, Volume I

Used in the Same Context