THe Woopcock. 39 
hid their long bills below the leaves or bracken. The eggs, four 
in number, are not so pyriform as would be expected, and are 
of a buffish cream colour, about 1.7 by 1.35 inches in measure- 
ment, blotched and spotted mostly at the larger end with reddish 
brown, with faint undermarkings of lilac-grey. Clutches of pure 
white eggs have been found, but are extremely rare. Four such 
eggs were found in Kincardineshire in May of this year: so late 
a date as May may shew that previous clutches had _ been 
destroyed ; that this was the third or fourth laying, and so were 
colourless owing to the exhausted condition of the bird that had 
laid them. The eggs are usually laid in April or even March, 
and require upwards of three weeks to hatch. Two broods may 
occasionally be reared in one season. ‘The nestlings are able to 
run within twenty-four hours of their being hatched. They are 
covered with velvety down of a rufous shade, with a broad band 
of chestnut-brown down their back, and on the top of their 
head, and with chestnut patches on their throat. In the months. 
of April, May, and June the male woodcock may be seen at dusk 
or at early dawn, flying in the open backwards and forwards. 
between two coverts. At this season of the year one might almost 
think that he was some different bird. He looks more like an 
owl, his flight is slow and laboured, and from time to time he 
utters a croak or a dissyllabic cry resembling the word 
“chissick.’’ Evening after evening the woodcock will keep as 
it were to his aerial pathways, which are called “cock roads,’’ 
while this style of flighting is termed “roading.’’ Often these 
“cock roads ”’ will be down some ride or glade in a wood; but 
as often alongside the covert itself. It is to be regretted that 
on the continent (as we have stated) so-called sportsmen (?) 
still profit by this peculiarity of “roading,’’ by lying in wait for 
and shooting these birds at a season when one might justly expect 
they should be left unmolested. Sometimes one may see two 
or three birds met together in the air, tilting at one another 
and enjoying a sort of playful warfare: very different to the 
pugnacious contests they have been seen to fight on the ground 
during the mating season. The female woodcock is a devoted 
mother, sitting so close on her eggs as often to allow her back 
to be touched with the hand. She will fly anxiously round 
and round any person approaching her young; and has more 
than once been seen to carry them away. How she accom- 
