394 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



there was still another pair of Woodcocks about, and he 

 supposed they must have a nest. We shot thirty-five 

 Woodcocks last season (1902-3), and left several in the 

 hope that they would stay and breed. In the winter of 

 1903-4 eighty-nine were shot, and in 1904-5 sixty-eight 

 Woodcocks were shot in the above districts." 



Mr. E. Bartlett, writing on April 17, 1906, says: "I 

 had the pleasure of seeing my first Woodcock's nest in a 

 wood near Ashford, and I was much surprised while being 

 taken by a keeper to the place in which it was situated, 

 and I may say that it was the last place I should have 

 gone to, or looked for one. It was a large, open wood, 

 sparsely covered with young oak and ash trees, all the 

 lower undergrow'th having been cut some time before, 

 so that only a few new shoots from the old stumps 

 remained. The nest of four dark brown, blotched eggs 

 were placed close to an old stump from which a few 

 leafless shoots and branches stood out, givmg no shelter 

 whatever at this season. The nest itself was merely 

 a depression among the oak leaves, and the eggs so like 

 the surrounding dry rubbish and leaves that an expert 

 eye would overlook them. Fortunately at the time of 

 my visit the hen bird was off the nest. The nest was 

 about 20 feet from a well-used footpath, and only pro- 

 tected from passers-by by a low fence, so exposed that 

 a quick eye might have spotted the bird had it been 

 moving about. When I saw the eggs on the 17th I 

 found they were hard set. It had been discovered 

 on the 12th ; on the 24th Mr. K. J. Balston found 

 them still mtact, but on the 25th the young were 

 hatched and gone. No doubt the eggs were laid about 

 April 5 or 6." 



