woo D-D UCK— WOODPECKER 1045 



The Woodcock inhabits suitable localities across the northern 

 part of the Old World, from Ireland to Japan, migrating southward 

 towards autumn. As a species it is said to be resident in the Azores 

 and other Atlantic Islands ; but it is not known to penetrate very 

 far into Africa during the winter, though in many parts of India 

 it is abundant during the cold weather, and reaches even Ceylon 

 and Tenasserim. The popular belief that Woodcocks live "by 

 suction " is perhaps hardly yet exploded ; but those who have ob- 

 served them in confinement know that they have an almost insatiable 

 appetite for earthworms, which the birds seek by probing soft ground 

 with their highly sensitive and flexible bill.^ This fact seems to 

 have been first placed on record by Bowles,^ who noticed it in the 

 royal aviary at San Ildefonso in Spain, and it has been corroborated 

 by other observers, and especially by Montagu, who discovered that 

 bread and milk made an excellent substitute for their ordinary food. 



The eastern part of North America possesses a Woodcock, much 

 smaller than though generally (and especially in habits) similar to 

 that of the Old continent. It is the Scolopax minor of most authors ; 

 but, chiefly on account of its having the outer three primax'ies remark- 

 ably attenuated, it has been placed in a separate genus, Philohela, 

 In Java is found a distinct and curiously-coloured species, described 

 and figured many years ago by Horsfield (Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 

 191, and Zool. Res. pi.) as S. saturata. To this Mr. Seebohm (Geogr. 

 Distr. Charadr. p. 506, pi.) referred the S. rosenhergi of Schlegel 

 {Nederl. Tijds. Dierk. iv. p. 54) from New Guinea; but, as the 

 culpable destruction of the type-specimen of the former (during its 

 transfer from the old museum of the East India Company to the 

 British Museum) has made a comparison of the two impossible, the 

 identification can scarcely be said to be free from doubt. Another 

 species is S. rochusseni from the Moluccas, but this last, though 

 resembling the other Woodcocks in most of the characters which 

 distinguish them from the Snipes, has like the latter the lower 

 part of the tibia bare of feathers. 



WOOD-DUCK, ^x sponsa (page 171): WOOD-HEN (see 

 Weka, page 1031): WOODLAEK (pages 509, 510). 



WOODPECKER, a bird that pecks or picks holes in wood, and 

 from this habit is commonly reputed to have its name ; but since 

 it is in some parts of England also known as " Woodspeight " 



tion. Sir E. Payne-Gall wey, in the 'Badminton Library' {Shooting, ii. p. 118, 

 note), states that he himself has ■witnessed the performance. 



^ The pair of muscles said by Loche (Expl. Sclent, de I'Algirie, ii. p. 293) to 

 exist in the maxilla, and presumably to direct the movement of the bill, do not 

 seem to have as yet been precisely described. 



^ Introducdon a la Historia Natural y a la Geografia fisica de EsjmTia, pp. 

 454, 455 (Madrid : 1775). 



