WOODCOCK 1043 



Tliougli there are probably few if any counties in the United 

 Kingdom in which the Woodcock does not almost yearly breed, 

 especially since a " close time " has been established by the legis- 

 lature, there can be no doubt that by far the greater number of 

 those shot in the British Islands have come from abroad, — mostly, 

 it is presumed, from Scandinavia. These arrive on the east coast 

 in autumn — generally about the middle of October — often in an 

 exhausted and impoverished state. Most of them seem to cross 

 the sea by night, and at that season it is a brutal practice for men 

 to go out in the morning and kill the helpless and almost starving 

 wanderers, who are often found seeking refuge in any shelter that 

 may present itself. If unmolested, however, they are soon rested, 

 pass inland, and, as would appear, in a short time recover their 

 condition. Their future destination seems to be greatly influenced by 

 the state of the weather. If cold or frost stop their supply of food 

 on the eastern side of Great Britain, they press ouAvard and, letting 

 alone Ireland into which the immigrant stream is pretty constant, 

 often crowd into the extreme south-west, as Devonshire and Corn- 

 wall, and to the Isles of Scilly, while not a few betake themselves 

 to the unknown ocean, finding there doubtless a watery grave, 

 though instances are on record of examj^les having successfully 

 crossed the Atlantic and reaching Newfoundland, New Jersey and 

 Virginia. To return, however, to the Woodcocks which bi^eed in 

 Britain, whose habits have been much more frequently observed 

 since the folly and cruelty of killing them in spring has been re- 

 cognized, and it may be hoped abandoned. Pairing takes place 

 very early in February and the eggs are laid often before the middle 

 of March. These are four in number, of a yellowish cream-colour 

 blotched and spotted with reddish -brown, and seldom take the 

 pyriform shape so common among those of Limicoline birds. The 

 nest — always made on the ground amid trees or underwood, and 

 usually near water or at least in a damp locality — is at first little 

 more than a slight hollow in the soil, but as incubation proceeds 

 dead leaves are collected around its margin until a considerable 

 mass is accumulated. During this season the male Woodcock 

 performs at twilight flights of a remarkable kind (SoNG, p. 893), 

 repeating evening after evening (and it is believed at dawn also) 



practically unanimous in declaring against the existence of two "species " or even 

 "races," and moreover in agreeing that the sex of the bird cannot be determined 

 from its plumage, though there are a few who believe that the young of the year 

 can be discriminated from the adults by having the outer web of the outer primary 

 marked with angular notches of a light colour, while the old birds have no trace 

 of this " Vandyke" ornament. Careful dissections, weighings and measurings 

 seem to shew that the male varies most in size ; on an average he is slightly 

 heavier than the female, yet some of the lightest birds have proved to be cocks. 

 Cf. Hoffmann's Die WaldscTinepfe, ed. 2, p. 35 (Stuttgart : 18S7). 



