WOODCOCK. 289 
In 1853, three eggs (which had been incubated about 
half their time) were found on the 14th of April, in the 
Mill Carr, near Buckenham House, then the property of 
the Hon. F. Baring (subsequently Lord Ashburton) and 
brought to Mr. Alfred Newton. These were small 
and rather singularly marked examples, as may be seen 
by the representation of one of them in the last edition 
of Mr. Hewitson’s work (pl. xevi., fig. 1.) On the 6th 
of May, of the same year, two young birds in the 
down, were taken from a nest at Cossey. These pretty 
little creatures were kept alive for some weeks in a 
patent hydro-incubator at that time exhibiting in 
Norwich, and appeared to thrive well in its artificial 
warmth, but were afterwards killed for stuffing, when 
sufficiently fledged. A few days later a nest of four 
egos, richly blotched with brown, was found at Swafield. 
Three of these passed into the possession of Mr. J. H. 
Gurney, and one is now in my own collection. One or 
two nests were, I believe, also found about the same 
time at Holkham. 
In 1854 several woodcocks were seen at Ranworth as 
late as the 26th of April, but no nest was found in that 
neighbourhood, and in 1859 a single bird was flushed on 
the 10th of May, in a plantation at Spixworth, but was 
not observed there afterwards. On the 28th of April, 
however, of the latter year, a nest was found in a valley 
planted with birch and oak, near the Beeston hills, 
about two hundred yards from “ Larry’s cottage,” a well 
known locality in the vicinity of Cromer.* The bird was 
flushed by a boy passing near, who at once detected the 
nest on the ground, covered with seared leaves and 
dried ferns. It contained four eggs, two of which were 
hatched on the 19th of May, the other two being left 
* The same, I have no doubt, recorded in the “ Zoologist” for 
1859 (p. 6562.) 
2P 
