1042 WOODCOCK 



WOODCOCK (A.-S. JVude-cocc, Wudu-coc and IFudii-snife), a 

 bird as much extolled for the table, ou account of its flavour, as by 

 the sportsman, Avho, from its relative scarcity in regard to other 

 kinds of winged game,^ the uncertainty of its occurrence, as well as 

 the suddenness of its appearance and the irregularity of its flight, 

 thinks himself lucky when he has laid one low. Yet, under favour- 

 able conditions, large bags of Woodcocks are made in many parts 

 of Great Britain, and still larger in Ireland, though the numbers 

 are trifling compared mth those that have fallen to the gun in 

 various parts of the European Continent, and especially in Albania 

 and Epirus. In England of old time Woodcocks were taken in nets 

 and springes, and, though the former method of capture seems to 

 have been disused for many years, the latter was practised in some 

 places until nearly the middle of the present century (cf. Knox, 

 Game-birds and Wild Foivl, pp. 148-151) or even later. 



The Woodcock is the Scolopax rusticula^ of ornithology, and is 

 well enough known to need no minute description. Its long bill, 

 short legs and large eyes — suggestive of its nocturnal or crepuscular 

 habits — have often been the subject of remark, while its mottled 

 plumage of black, chestnut- and umber-brown, ashy-grey, buff and 

 shining white — the last being confined to the tip of the lower side 

 of the tail-quills, but the rest intermixed for the most part in 

 beautiful combination — could not be briefly described. Setting 

 aside the many extreme aberrations from the normal colouring 

 which examples of this species occasionally present (and some of 

 them are extremely curious, not to say beautiful), there is much 

 variation observable in the plumage of individuals, in some of which 

 the richer tints prevail while others exhibit a greyer coloration.^ 



^ In the legal sense of the word, however, "Woodcocks are not "game," though 

 Acts of Parliament require a "game licence " from those who would shoot them. 



- By Linnseus, and many others, misspelt rusticola : the correct form of Pliny 

 and the older writers seems to have been first restored in 1816 by Oken {Zoologie, 

 ii. p. 589). 



^ This variation is often, but not always, accompanied by a variation in size 

 or at least in weight, which last is very great, though it seems to have been 

 exaggerated by some writers. A friend who has had much experience told me 

 that the heaviest bird he ever knew weighed 16 J oz., and the lightest 9 oz. and 

 a fraction. The paler birds are generally the larger, but the difference, whether 

 in bulk or tint, cannot be attributed to age, sex, season or, so far as can be ascer- 

 tained, to locality. It is, notwithstanding, a very common belief among sports- 

 men that there are two "species" of Woodcock, and many persons of experience 

 will have it that, beside the differences just named, the "little red Woodcock" 

 invariably flies more sharply than the other. However, a sluggish behaviour is 

 not really associated with colour, though it may possibly be correlated with weight 

 — for it is quite conceivable that a fat bird will rise more slowly, when flushed, 

 than one which is in poor condition. It may suffice here to say that ornitho- 

 logists, some of whom have taken a vast amount of trouble about the matter, are 



