268 CHARADRITDA 
AVERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 
TOTAL LENGTH ... oe 1) Sie beame 
WING ak he se 21. aia 
BEAK ae se ao RO ae 
TARSO-METATARSUS . fe tO tome 
Hae Ith >< 282m: 
Allied Species and Representative Forms.—Phalaropus 
wilsont, which is larger than either of the preceding birds, 
is an American representative of this genus. 
WOODCOCK. Scolopax rusticula (Linneus). 
Coloured Fiqures.—Gould, ‘ Birds of Great Britain,’ vol. iv, pl. 
77; Dresser, ‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. vii, pl. 540; Lilford, 
‘Coloured Figures,’ vol. v, pls. 23, 24; Booth, ‘ Rough 
Notes,’ vol. 11, pls. 23, 24. 
The Woodcock, so named because it rests by day amidst 
the shelter of wood and covert, 1s widely distributed over 
Great Britam and Ireland in winter, being very plentiful in 
the latter Island. A large and increasing number remain to 
breed, and in October and November these are augmented 
by the arrival of migrants from colder countries. 
By December the migration has practically come to an 
end, so that the numbers which sometimes appear suddenly 
on the coast during severe frost and snow later on in the 
winter, represent simply a mustering together of the birds, 
which in milder weather were scattered over the interior 
of the country. 
The Woodcock is a pecuhar bird. In its habits it is 
strongly nocturnal, feeding almost exclusively at might, and 
hence it 1s difficult to observe.’ 
' In the summer of 1890, as I was sitting at dusk in a pine-grove near 
Mnniskerry, co. Wicklow, trying to catch sight of a Blackeap which was 
warbling exquisitely in a tree close by, I suddenly perceived a Woodcock 
standing within a yard or so of me. So perfectly did its rustic colours 
harmonise with the surrounding withered ferns, leaves, mosses, stones, 
