332 SCOLOPACID^. 



practice which prevails, or did so until very lately, in Scau- 

 dina\'ia and Northern Germany, of shooting the Woodcocks 

 on their arrival in spring when they " rode," to use the word 

 which is still employed in East Anglia.* A limited number 

 breed in Northern and Central Europe as far as Upper Italy, 

 and in the mountains which sweep round Austria down to 

 Transylvania, as high up as the limit of tree-growth ; but in 

 the Pyrenees, and the Iberian Peninsula, it is, as in the rest 

 of Europe, principally a visitor on migration, and in winter. 

 Enormous bags have been made in the woods along the 

 coast of Epirus and Albania at that season. In the 

 Canaries, Azores, and Madeira, it would appear to be par- 

 tially resident. Its winter range can be traced along the 

 northern portion of Africa to Egypt, Palestine, and Asia 

 Minor ; in Persia it is found at that season in the large 

 gardens and plantations ; and, visiting India regularly between 

 October and February, it straggles to Ceylon and Tenasserim. 

 The late A. Anderson found a nest containing four hard- set 

 eggs from which his companion. Dr. Triphook, shot the 

 bird, on the 30th June, in Upper Kumaon, at an elevation of 

 10,000 feet (Str. Feath. 1875, p. 35G), and it seems prob- 

 able that it breeds in other parts of the Himalayas. To 

 the north of the watershed it is found breeding in the moun- 

 tains about Lake Baikal, and the Bureja mountains ; it 

 breeds in Japan as far south as Fusijan ; and it goes down 

 to China. As a straggler it has been recorded as occurring 

 at St. John's, Newfoundland, on the 9th January, 1862, and 

 in New Jersey ; f also in Virginia. | 



Many sportsmen believe that the sex of the Woodcock can 

 be determined by the plumage : the examples which have the 

 external web of the outer primary devoid of tooth-like mark- 

 ings being the males, whilst those which exhibit the markings 

 are the females. The late Mr. Gould, however, who in the 



* Full descriptions of this destructive and short-sighted proceeding, which, 

 however, seems to have possessed a fascination for a certain class of sportsmen, 

 are to be found in Lloyd's works. 



t Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lye. Nut. Hist. viii. p. 292 ; Baird, Am. Journ. 

 Arts and Sc. 18G6, p. 338. 



t Coucs, Am. Nat. x., July 1870, p. 272. 



