282 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



Woodcock on her nest. I said, " I should, indeed. " 

 He went away a short distance from where we 

 happened to be in the wood, then beckoned to me 

 to come to him, and there in some bracken in a spot 

 sheltered from the cold winds, and well exposed to 

 the sun's rays, sat this handsome bird on her nest, 

 with one of her big black eyes open, the other half 

 closed, as if she wanted " forty winks." She was quite 

 tame, letting me come within a yard or so of her. 



" The nest is merely a depression in some 

 sheltered place, a lining of dead leaves being added, 

 usually during incubation. The eggs — often laid by 

 the middle of March, though more frequently in 

 April, are usually four in number, are of a yellowish- 

 white colour, blotched with ash-grey and two shades 

 of reddish-brown." (Howard Saunders.) 



One very interesting feature about this species is 

 the tender care for its young. On the approach of 

 any danger the female removes them to some other 

 place, and many have been the ideas and sug- 

 gestions as to the process by which she accom- 

 plished her purpose ; the one most generally 

 accepted being, I think, that she presses the little 

 one to her breast with her beak, and, supporting it 

 between her thighs, carries it away to safety. 



Most of my Woodcock shooting has been in co. 

 Kerry — principally at Waterville, where I had the 

 services of John Sullivan, than whom no better man 

 in "Ould Oireland " could be found for the purpose ; 

 for was not he the keenest of the keen upon this 

 particular species ? I used to ask his opinion in 



