1044 WOODCOCK 
precisely the same course, generally describing a triangle, the sides 
of which may be a quarter of a mile long or more. On these 
occasions the bird’s appearance on the wing is quite unlike that 
which it presents when hurriedly flying after being flushed, and 
though its speed is great the beats of the wings are steady and 
slow. At intervals an extraordinary sound is produced, whether 
from the throat of the bird, as is commonly averred, or from the 
plumage is uncertain. To the present writer the sound seems to 
defy description, though some hearers have tricd to syllable it. 
This characteristic flight is in some parts of England called “ road- 
ing,” and the track taken by the bird a “cock-road.”+ In England 
in former times advantage was taken of this habit to catch the 
simple performer in nets called ‘‘cock-shutts,” which were hung 
between trees across the open glades or rides of a wood,? and in 
many parts of the Continent it still is, or was till very lately, the 
disgraceful habit of persons calling themselves sportsmen to lie in 
wait and shoot the bird as he indulges in his measured love-flight. 
A still more interesting matter in relation to the breeding of Wood- 
cocks is the fact, asserted by several ancient writers, but for long 
doubted if not disbelieved, and yet finally established on good 
evidence, that the old birds transport their newly-hatched offspring, 
presumably to places where food is more accessible. The young 
are clasped between the thighs of the parent, whose legs hang down 
during the operation, while the bill is to some extent, possibly only 
at starting, brought into operation to assist in adjusting the load if 
not in bearing it through the air.? 
1 The etymology and consequently the correct spelling of these expressions 
seem to be very uncertain. Some would derive the word from the French réder, 
to rove or wander, but others connect it with the Scandinavian rode, an open 
space in a wood (see Notes and Queries, ser. 5, ix. p. 214, and ser. 6, viii. pp. 
523, 524). Looking to the regular routine followed by the bird, the natural 
supposition would be that it is simply an application of the English word road ; 
but of course natural suppositions are often wrong, and they always require the 
support of evidence before acceptance. 
2 There is an interesting passage, to which Lord Lilford kindly drew my atten- 
tion, in George Owen’s Description of Penbrokshire, written in 1602 and printed in 
1892 as No. 1 of the ‘Cymmrodorion Record Series’ (pp. 129, 180), shewing the 
marvellous ‘‘plentie” of Woodcocks, from Michaelmas to Christmas, in that 
county, where they were taken ‘‘in cock shoote tyme (as yt is tearmed) w° is 
the twylight,” when ‘‘yt ys no strange thinge to take a hundred or sixe score in 
one woodd in xxiiij°" houres,” and another MS. speaks of one wood having 13 
cock-shots. In explanation of this abundance the great extent of forest which 
then prevailed in England may be borne in mind. One can hardly doubt that 
very many more Woodcocks were then bred here than we have any notion of at 
present, while the birds would, as they now do, make in autumn for the western 
part of the island. It is expressly stated by Owen that they were not reared in 
Wales, for he says that the species is ‘‘not our countryeman borne.” 
3 Cf. Harting, Zoologist, 1879, pp. 433-440, and Mr. Wolf's excellent illustra- 
