296 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
by Mr. Edward Newman in the “ Zoologist” for 1855, 
(p. 4631), all the markings peculiar to the woodcock 
in its usual plumage were in this bird more or less 
faintly indicated by the most delicate buff or fawn 
tint on a ground of white, whilst those parts which 
in the normal colouring of the species are deepest, were 
here also most plainly discernable. The whole of the 
under parts were white, yet still showing the usual bars 
when closely examined, resembling the faintest water 
markings, visible only in the strongest light. On the 
16th of November, 1864, a curiously pied bird, now in the 
possession of Lord Hastings, was shot at Melton Con- 
stable. In this specimen all the primaries of one wing, 
except the fourth, and the wing-coverts, were pure 
white, and in the other wing the three first primaries 
and one or two feathers in the coverts; the rest of 
the plumage being of the usual tint. On the 17th of 
March, 1859, a woodcock was also killed near Lowestoft, 
in Suffolk, having the back and wings thickly sprinkled 
with white feathers, as were also the sides of the neck 
and the under parts generally. 
Selby mentions the exquisite sense of touch possessed 
by this and allied species from the nervous apparatus 
distributed over the anterior portion of the beak, 
enabling them to detect their food unerringly when 
boring deep in the soil, and also the power of expand- 
ing the tips of the mandibles, in order to seize and 
draw out their prey, but as far as the upper mandible, 
at least, is concerned, this strange faculty appears 
to be developed in a remarkable manner in the wood- 
cock. Mr. F. Norgate, of Sparham, on one occasion 
having slightly winged a woodcock took it home 
alive, and he assures me that the flexibility of the 
upper mandible was so great that it resembled more 
the writhings of a worm than a beak, and from the 
slight sketch, with which he furnished me at the time, 
