8. ; WOODCOCK. 
nearly equal patches by two bars of yellowish brown; chin, 
pale yellowish brown—nearly white. Throat and breast, pale 
brown, barred across with dark brown, both shades lighter in 
old birds; on its upper part are two patches of rufous, which 
differ in depth of colour in different birds; back, mottled with 
three shades of brown. 
The wings expand to the width of two feet two inches; 
greater and lesser wing coverts, reddish brown, with open oval 
rings of dark brown; primaries, blackish brown, with triangular- 
shaped spots of pale reddish brown along the margin of each 
web; at the root of the first quill is a small narrow and 
pointed feather, found serviceable by painters as a pencil; the 
first quill feather is marked with alternate dark and lght 
spots of a somewhat triangular shape, but they are said to 
wear out with age from the base to the end of the feathers; 
the second is the longest; secondaries and tertiaries, blackish 
brown, but with the light-coloured marks more elongated, 
and reaching across to the shaft; underneath, the quill feathers 
are dark slate grey, the triangular marks yellowish grey; 
greater and lesser under wing coverts, pale brown barred with 
dark brown. ‘The tail, of twelve feathers, is black, indented 
across with reddish spots on the edges, and tipped with dark 
grey; underneath, it is nearly black tipped with white; upper 
tail coverts, chesnut brown tipped with grey, and barred 
across with dark brown; under tail coverts, yellowish white, 
with black triangular-shaped central spots. ‘The legs, which 
are short, and feathered to the knees, are, as the toes, dark 
brownish grey; claws, black. 
The female exceeds the female in size; weight, ordinarily 
from thirteen to fifteen ounces: one is recorded in a letter 
from Lady Peyton to Miss Hoste, as communicated by Lord 
Braybrooke to Mr. Yarrell, which was of the extraordinary 
weight of twenty-seven ounces; it was shot at Narborough, 
in Norfolk, about 1775 or 1776. Some years previously one 
had been killed at Hadleigh, in Suffolk, which weighed 
twenty-four ounces. Another was shot at Audley End, the 
seat of Lord Braybrooke, which weighed sixteen ounces. In 
Pennant’s ‘British Zoology,’ one is mentioned as killed at 
Holywell, of the weight of twenty ounces; and in Daniels’ 
‘Rural Sports,’ one of seventeen ounces. The head on the 
sides about the streak from the bill to the eye, is darker 
than in the male, and the small triangular-shaped specks are 
less defined; the back has less of the pale brown and grey. 
