116 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



WOODCOCK. 



SCOLOPAX RUSTICOLA, Linnaeus. 



The Woodcock breeds very generally all over the county 

 wherever sufficient cover is to be found, but perhaps is most 

 abundant along the banks of the river Shin, and at Rosehall. I 

 have never had the good fortune to see this bird carrying its young, 

 though I have heard various accounts of its doing so from game- 

 keepers and others. Mr J. Crawford writes that it breeds every 

 year close to his house at Tongue, and that he has found the newly- 

 hatched young " crouching amongst the fallen beech leaves." He 

 further remarks, that the old bird gathers its young together " by 

 flying about and uttering a peculiar ' croak.' " It breeds also now 

 around Loch Inver, and on the wooded banks of Loch Letteressee, 

 in the west. Mr Anthony Hamond is quoted by Mr Stevenson, 

 in his " Birds of Norfolk " (Vol. ii., p. 28G), as having seen Wood- 

 cocks sitting on their eggs, in the end of March, in the north-west 

 of Scotland. I have myself taken the eggs in the midland counties 

 of Scotland, containing fully- developed chicks, on the 25th of 

 April. 



Ohs. Eed-necked Plialarope, Phalaropus hjperhoraeus (Linnaeus). — 

 As there is only one record of this species having been seen in 

 the breeding season in Sutherland, I prefer entering it under this 

 heading, all endeavours to hear of its actually breeding having 

 failed. The only record with which I am acquainted is given in 

 Mr St. John's "Natural History and Sport in Moray." At page 



130, under the date of June 10th, 1848, he says, " 



But the birds which were most interesting (and to me new) were 

 two Eed-necked Phalaropes, which I watched for half an hour, 

 wliile they fed, sometimes witliin a yard of my feet, where I was 



sitting, close to a corner of the swamp They were 



swimming about in the weedy water, and sometimes running on 

 the broader leaves,* feeding on the small insects and shells." Mr 

 A. G. More also cites Mr W. Dunbar as an authority for its 

 breeding in Sutherland, but I believe that" Mr Dunbar, in giving 

 this information, only quoted the above passage on the authority 

 of Mr St. John, who saw the above single pair. They were 

 possibly migrating to Shetland, wliere they breed about that date. 



* Probably the leaves of the water-lily, which is exceedingly abundant on 

 many of the Sutherland lochs. 



