38 THE WOODCOCK. 
The interest now taken in ornithology is greater than it has been 
hitherto, and it is certain that many cases which formerly would 
have escaped attention are now duly recorded. Of late years a 
marked tendency for the more northerly-breeding ducks to come 
further south to nest has been noticed, and the cause for this 
change of habit is as inexplicable as the increasing numbers of 
woodcock that now annually remain with us to nest. Experi- 
ments have been, and are being, tried on the Duke of Northum- 
berland’s estates at Alnwick, by marking young nestling wood- 
cock to see how far these young birds are migratory; but the 
result of these experiments have as yet led to no definite con- 
clusion. That some woodcock nest and remain throughout 
the year within the British Isles is certain, and it is possible 
that the great migratory flow of these birds, on which sportsmen 
mainly depend for their sport, may in the course of ages be 
rendered trivial by the increased numbers of British-bred birds. 
Willughby as long ago as 1678, in his “ Ornithology,’’ p. 290, 
states “some stragglers by some accident left behind when their 
fellows depart remain also in England all summer and breed 
here.’’ He also states “this bird is infamous for its simplicity 
or folly, so that a woodcock is proverbially used for a simple, 
foolish person.’’ On estates where twenty years ago the finding 
of a nest with eggs was regarded as a curiosity, it is now common 
to find a nest in every covert which affords sufficient quietude 
and undergrowth. We read-in 1905 of a keeper in Ireland, 
whilst searching for pheasants’ nests, finding more woodcock 
nests than those of pheasants. In 1903 we found a woodcock’s 
nest in Dumfriesshire which, besides containing the four rightful 
eggs, contained one of a pheasant; and this intrusion was pro- 
bably the cause of the nest’s desertion. The nest is but a mere 
depression in the ground, usually at the base of some tree, and 
scantily lined with dead leaves. As the old bird sits on her nest 
she affords one of the most striking examples of Nature’s pro- 
tective colouration. | Her mottled back harmonises perfectly 
with her surroundings of dead fern and leaves, and some 
observers say she is only to be detected by her large round eye. 
Others again assert that recognising that “her eyes betray her 
secret ’’ she keeps them closed; but on this point, surely, it is 
hard to lay a hard and fast rule. I have noticed, however, that 
the woodcock I have seen on their nests in every case partially 
