BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 69 



of these emphasised by vivid contrast the value of the 

 normal coloration. The active little chicks are clad 

 in rich rufous down, paler on the under-parts, and longi- 

 tudinally banded with chestnut above, with various minor 

 markings. 



That a Woodcock will sometimes fly carrying one of 

 its chicks has for long been known to naturalists. In 

 some old works it is stated that the chick is candied in 

 the bill, a practically impossible feat for this species, as 

 Gilbert White sanely pointed out. Others describe the 

 chick as being carried in the claws ; but the ordinary, 

 if not the only way, is to carry the young one between 

 the thighs and pressed close to the body, additional 

 security being at times obtained by use of the bill. This 

 habit is most often noted when a Woodcock is alarmed 

 when with its chicks ; one is immediately carried some 

 distance away, the old bird returning for another if the 

 danger is not already too close. St John, however, avers 

 that Woodcocks regularly transport their young, one by 

 one, at twilight to the low marshy feeding-grounds some 

 little distance from their native wood, and this even when 

 the young are ' greater in size than Snipe.' Further corro- 

 boration of this is considered desirable. Snipe and other 

 species have occasionally been detected carrying young 

 ones in flight. 



After the duties of the nesting season are over the 

 birds efface themselves, becoming very skulking in their 

 habits, in order to accomplish the autumn moult in safety. 

 This has led to the popular belief that they all migrate, 

 and that the birds found in winter are all of foreign 

 origin. Since 1891, however. Woodcocks have been ' ringed,"* 

 in the manner already described, on the Duke of Northum- 

 berland's estate at Alnwick. Some of the birds marked 

 there in summer were recovered there in winter, but 



