158 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



earlier individuals are brooding, and by the first week 

 in April nesting is general. The nesting ground is usually 

 a wood, deciduous trees being, I think, preferred, owing 

 to the soft layer of fallen leaves covering the ground. Close- 

 grown plantations are rarely chosen as nesting sites, and 

 small belts of birch and oak are favourite nesting grounds, 

 provided that there is plenty of space between the trees. 

 It is my experience that the birds dislike dense cover in 

 which to nest ; a few broken-down bracken offer a suitable 

 position, or the bird may scrape out a hollow amongst 

 the deep layers of fallen beech and oak leaves which 

 cover the ground beneath these trees. The eggs usually 

 number four, but at times only three are found. Their 

 ground colour is normally buff coloured, and they are 

 liberally spotted and blotched by dark reddish-brown 

 markings. Nothing more primitive than the nest of the 

 Woodcock can be found in the bird world. It is merely 

 a slight hollow scraped in the ground and generally with- 

 out intentional lining of any kind. The mother Woodcock 

 often sits very hard on her eggs, especially if incubation 

 be far advanced, for she relies on the close harmonisation 

 of her plumage with her surroundings. Sometimes I have 

 been able to approach to within a few feet of such a bird, 

 and by not the slightest movement did she betray that she 

 was alive. As the result of her early nesting, the Wood- 

 cock has sometimes to cover her eggs when snow lies 

 around to a considerable depth. 



The young, as is the case with " waders " generally, 

 are able to move about a short time after hatching. 

 They are buff in colour, with a reddish chocolate median 

 band extending along the back to the crown, where it 

 branches and runs forward over the eyes. 



Although such an early nester, I have seen eggs of the 

 Woodcock as late as the third week in July, which seems 

 to point to the fact that in certain instances two broods 



