WOODCOCK 1043 
Though there are probably few if any counties in the United 
Kingdom in which the Woodcock does not almost yearly breed, 
especially since a “close time” has been established by the legis- 
lature, there can be no doubt that by far the greater number of 
those shot in the British Islands have come from abroad,—mostly, 
it is presumed, from Scandinavia. ‘These arrive.on the east coast 
in autumn—generally about the middle of October—often in an 
exhausted and impoverished state. Most of them seem to cross 
the sea by night, and at that season it is a brutal practice for men 
to go out in the morning and kill the helpless and almost starving 
wanderers, who are often found seeking refuge in any shelter that 
may present itself. If unmolested, however, they are soon rested, 
pass inland, and, as would appear, in a short time recover their 
condition. Their future destination seems to be greatly influenced by 
the state of the weather. If cold or frost stop their supply of food 
on the eastern side of Great Britain, they press onward and, letting 
alone Ireland into which the immigrant stream is pretty constant, 
often crowd into the extreme south-west, as Devonshire and Corn- 
wall, and to the Isles of Scilly, while not a few betake themselves 
to the unknown ocean, finding there doubtless a watery grave, 
though instances are on record of examples having successfully 
crossed the Atlantic and reaching Newfoundland, New Jersey and 
Virginia. To return, however, to the Woodcocks which breed in 
Britain, whose habits have been much more frequently observed 
since the folly and cruelty of killing them in spring has been re- 
cognized, and it may be hoped abandoned. Pairing takes place 
very early in February and the eggs are laid often before the middle 
of March. These are four in number, of a yellowish cream-colour 
blotched and spotted with reddish-brown, and seldom take the 
pyriform shape so common among those of Limicoline birds. The 
nest—always made on the ground amid trees or underwood, and 
usually near water or at least in a damp locality—is at first little 
more than a slight hollow in the soil, but as incubation proceeds 
‘dead leaves are collected around its margin until a considerable 
mass is accumulated. During this season the male Woodcock 
performs at twilight flights of a remarkable kind (Sone, p. 893), 
repeating evening after ev ening (and it is believed at dawn also) 
peasy unanimous in declaring against the existence of two ‘‘species” or even 
‘races,’ and moreover in agrecing that the sex of the bird cannot be determined 
from its plumage, though there are a few who believe that the young of the year 
can be discriminated from the adults by having the outer web of the outer primary 
marked with angular notches of a light colour, while the old birds have no trace 
of this ‘‘vandyke” ornament. Careful dissections, weighings and measurings 
seem to shew that the male varies most in size; on an average he is slightly 
heavier than the female, yet some of the lightest birds have proved to be cocks. 
Cf. Hoffmann’s Die Waldschnepfe, ed. 2, p. 35 (Stuttgart : 1887). 
