SCOLOPAX RUSTICOLA 17 



bling the second figure in Hewifcson's work, and in the character of 

 their markings they are not unlike richly coloured specimens of 

 some Terns' eggs." 



Osmaston has an account of the finding of a nest in the Tons 

 Valley, especially interesting as in this case there was no attempt 

 to carry off the young ; the mother, when disturbed, attempting 

 to divert attention by feigning being crippled. He says that after 

 finding the mother and tiny young, only a day or two old, the former 

 " all the time I had been inspecting her brood had been going through 

 the strangest of antics with outspread wings and tail, and making a 

 continual sort of grating, purring noise. She allowed me to approach 

 within a few feet, and then, with an apparent effort, half fluttered 

 half ran away." 



Rattray took a large number of nests of the Woodcock in Changla 

 Gali, Danga Gali and other places near Murree. In the B.N.H.S. 

 Journal {in loc. cit.) he records : " This bird breeds freely round 

 Changla Gali from about 8,500 feet upwards. I saw eight or ten 

 pairs, and found some five nests, each containing the usual four eggs. 

 The nests were all in thick forests and generally under a shrub-like 

 Rue. The nest is a typical one. I hope next year to get a good 

 photo of a sitting bird and settle the question I lately ventilated in 

 the ' Field ' as to birds sitting with eyes closed and bill resting on 

 the ground." 



The typical nest referred to is that shown by Rattray in the 

 beautiful photograph which accompanies his article. This shows a 

 nest formed by a depression in a mass of leaves and rubbish lying 

 on the ground under a thickly foliaged bush. 



The Woodcock sits extraordinarily close on hard-set eggs or 

 young. This year, 1920, Dr. H. N. Coltart and I had a very good 

 example of this. We had located a Sparrow-hawk's nest which 

 the keeper was desirous of destroying, and the three of us sat down 

 on the ground to discuss the way to get it. Eventually the keeper 

 put on the climbing irons and went up the tree, a very long and 

 difficult job, whilst Coltart and I sat on the open ground below. 

 Dead oak leaves lay thick everywhere, though, the season being very 

 late, there was no undergrowth, but we had not rested some ten 

 minutes before Coltart got up and from almost touching him a 

 Woodcock rose and flew away, leaving visible her nest and four young. 

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