266 SNIPE AND SNIPE-LIKE BIRDS. 



The Woodcock breeds throughout tlie British 

 Islands wherever suitable cover occurs, for lie is, 

 as his name declares, a bird of the woods. As his 

 large eye might suggest, he is crepuscular in habit, 

 and hides himself away during the daytime, often 

 beneath some shadowy evergreen. If he be flushed 

 at such a time, his peculiar glancing flight, of which 

 the sudden twists and swerves are specially noticeable 

 when he threads some woody glade, the finely mottled 

 plumage, his large dark eye — in fact, everything but 

 the utterly different form of the bird recalls the 

 Nightjar, another bird of nocturnal habits. But the 

 angular, laterally compressed head and elongated, 

 always depressed bill are the Woodcock's own, and 

 at dusk he hies away to the marsh to use the latter 

 in probing the soft ooze for worms, his principal fare. 

 Even then lie will avoid the open, feeding preferably 

 among the marsh growth. Nesting under woodland 

 cover among dead leaves, he throws off" his habitual 

 silence and secrecy for a sliort time during the twilight 

 at the opening and at the close of day, to parade 

 before and serenade his mate. Flying to and fro 

 with gravely flapping wings and pompously puffed 

 plumage, he emits two notes, one deep, the other a 

 high-pitched, whistled note. The female bird sits 

 very close, and when the young are out, carries them, 

 if need be, between her thighs to and from the feeding 

 ground. As a great immigration of Woodcocks from 

 the northern parts of the Continent takes place 

 in October, it is probable that our own breeding 

 birds shift southwards at that time. They are 

 back in their places, however, sometimes with eggs 

 out, when the Continental birds pass on their 



