232 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



THE WOODCOCK (SCOLOPAX RUSTICOLA) 



GENERIC markings : Back of the head barred 

 transversely dusky ; upper plumage mottled with 

 chestnut, yellow, ash, and black ; lower, reddish- 

 yellow, with brown zigzag lines ; quills barred on their 

 outer web with rust-red and black ; tail of twelve feathers, 

 tipped above with grey, below with silvery white ; bill 

 flesh-colour ; feet, livia. Length, thirteen inches. Eggs; 

 dirty yellow, blotched, and spotted with brown and grey. 



The history of the woodcock as a visitor in the British 

 Isles is briefly as follows : Wood cocks come to us from 

 the south in autumn, the earliest being annually observed 

 about the twentieth of October. On their first arrival 

 they are generally found to be in bad condition ; so weak, 

 in fact, that one recollects many instances of flights 

 having reached the coasts of Cornwall, only able to gain 

 the land. Their condition at these times is one of ex- 

 treme exhaustion, and they become the prey not only 

 of the sportsman but are easily captured alive. 



In the course of a very few days those that escape the 

 fowler or prowler, very quickly recruit their strength, 

 when they make their way inland. They have been 

 known to settle even on the deck of a ship, at sea, in order 

 to rest ; or actually to alight for a few moments in the 

 smooth water of a ship's wake. Their usual place of 

 resort by day are woods and coppices in hilly districts, 

 whither they repair for shelter and concealment. 



Disliking cold, they select in preference the side of a 

 valley which is least exposed to the wind ; and though they 

 never perch on a branch they prefer the concealment 

 offered by trees to that of any other covert. There 

 crouching under a holly, or among briars and thorns, they 

 spend the day in inactivity, guarded from molestation by 

 their stillness, and by the rich brown tint of their plum- 

 age, which can hardly be distinguished from dead leaves. 

 Their large prominent bead-like eyes are alone likely to 

 betray them ; and this; it is said, is sometimes the case. 



