WOODCOCK AND THE SAFETY OF THEIR YOUNG 53 



Woodcocks' nests which had been discovered about a fort- 

 night before. The first nest visited contained an addled 

 egg and the remains of others that had hatched. Not far 

 from it a Woodcock, probably the parent bird, got up, but 

 not near enough, nor in a sufficiently clear space, for us to 

 observe her actions distinctly, and in the circumstances a 

 search for the young seemed hardly worth while. Proceeding 

 to the second nest we found the eggs (it was known there 

 were four) had all hatched, and in the expectation that the 

 bird and her family would still be in the neighbourhood a 

 search for them was instituted. Before we had gone far, a 

 Woodcock rose on our right within about three yards of our 

 feet, and flew diagonally across our path in the same 

 laboured fashion, and repeating the same manoeuvres, as I 

 had witnessed at Saltoun the previous spring. The feet 

 seemed, however, to be drooping more. On the spot from 

 which the bird rose, four chicks, apparently not more than 

 three or four days old, were found sitting together. If, as 

 seems highly probable, this was the brood from the nest 

 we had just inspected, then the mother had not carried away 

 a young one, for as above stated the nest was known to 

 contain only the usual set of four eggs. And even if she 

 were a different bird, the chance that she had a brood of five 

 is very remote. 



In 191 3 I had another day at Tyninghame in search of 

 young Woodcock on loth May. Seven nests were seen. 

 On four of them the birds were still sitting, while the other 

 three contained the remains of hatched eggs (in one of them 

 there was also an addled egg). Two broods were all we 

 could discover. One consisted of four well-grown youngsters, 

 which fluttered off, one after another, immediately the old 

 bird got up. While the young birds fled away from us, the 

 old one, going in the opposite direction, passed nearly over 

 our heads and alighted for a few seconds a short distance 

 behind me. When on the ground she flopped about in a 

 very agitated manner, clearly an expression of anxiety for 

 the safety of her brood. That no young one was carried in 

 this instance I am quite certain. With regard to the other 

 brood, nothing of a definite nature could be made out. 



