Their Eggs and Nests. 169 



England, thimgli occurring, occasionally, somewhat 

 more abundantly in some of the northern Scotch 

 Islands. 



WOODCOCK— (5r^^/^^ riistieold). 



One of our most universally recognised "birds of 

 passage," coming to us sometimes in the autumn 

 (always, at least, beginning to arrive in October), and 

 leaving us again in the spring. Still no season passes 

 in which many pairs do not remain to breed, and that, 

 too, in many different parts of the kingdom. It was 

 an object to me some tifty years ago to obtain eggs 

 of the Woodcock, and I applied to a person in Norfolk, 

 who had not any difficulty in procuring for me eggs 

 from the gamekeeper of a neighbouring estate out of 

 two different nests which had been deserted by their 

 owners. My friend added the information, that 

 scarcely a year passed in which one nest or more of 

 Woodcocks was not known of on the estate in ques- 

 tion. Their nests are not uncommon in some parts of 

 Galloway. The nest, a very loose one, is made of 

 dead leaves and the like, bracken leaves appearing to 

 be commonly used for the purpose. The eggs are 

 usually about four in number, and want the peculiar 

 pointed shape common to almost all the other birds of 

 the Order. They are of a dirty yellowish-white, a 

 good deal blotched and spotted with two or three 

 shades of pale brown and purplish-grey. The old 

 bird is known to transport her young, if occasion 

 demands, from one place to another. She has been 

 seen doing so repeatedly, and by good observers, 

 generally making use of both feet for the purpose, 



