Nests of the Woodcock in England. 543 



[We strongly recommend our correspondent to read the 

 whole of Mr. Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise ; for, without 

 meaning to pass any opinion upon the general merits of the 

 work, we feel sure that he may acquire from its perusal such 

 a quantum of information as will prevent his again confound- 

 ing the " vis formativa " of Lamarck, with the relations of 

 analogy exhibited throughout various groups in the animal 

 kingdom to one another. — Ed.~] 



Birds. — Nests of the Woodcock in England. — Ornithologists 

 have for some time been convinced of the fact, that the common 

 woodcock occasionally breeds in England ; but the instances 

 have been rare, and, generally, a single pair of birds, without 

 others in the neighbourhood to evince that the stay was en- 

 tirely a voluntary one. This spring, however, the nests of 

 three pairs were found in one wood belonging to Francis 

 Hurt, Esq., of Alderwasley, near Derby. The nests, when 

 discovered, all contained eggs, the old birds being then sitting. 

 I wrote to Mr. Hurt on April 29., requesting him to procure 

 for our Society a nest with eggs ; and, two or three days after, 

 he kindly sent me the nest, with broken shells of four eggs, 

 which, as well as those of other nests, had been hatched 

 even at that early period of the year. Two of the young 

 broods, with the old birds leading them about, have been 

 seen by the gamekeepers of that gentleman, who remarks in 

 his letter, that, on going to the nest, the old bird did not rise 

 until he had approached within the distance of a yard. They 

 were all in dry warm situations, amongst dead grass and leaves, 

 without any attempt at concealment. The nest sent was 

 wholly composed of dead leaves, chiefly of the common fern, 

 loosely laid together, and without any lining. The under- 

 wood was thin, and of not more than from seven to ten years' 

 growth. 



The singular circumstance of three broods occurring in the 

 same plantation would seem to imply that the birds had re- 

 mained from choice, and something attractive in the situation, 

 rather than necessity. Mr. Hurt met with one woodcock 

 in the same woods last summer, towards the end of June; and 

 his gamekeeper caught another in a trap set for blackbirds 

 amongst some gooseberry bushes : from which he imagines 

 they have bred there in previous years. — William C. Wil- 

 liamson, Curator to the Natural History Society, Manchester, 

 June 21. 



The Woodcock. — During summer, the woodcock is found 

 in Lapland, Norway, and Sweden ; and in the markets of 

 the latter country their eggs are exposed for sale. Like the 

 eggs of the lapwing in England, those of the woodcock are 



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