IS GAMK-mnns of india 



These latter, although so tiny, two still had half their eggs on their 

 tails, at once crawled away under the leaves and hid, and even when 

 we took them up lay with eyes shut as if dead. When we visited the 

 nest the following day they had all been removed. 



In India the Woodcock seems seldom to breed before May, and 

 generally not before the end of that month. Osmaston found young 

 birds on the 17th June in the Tons Valley. Davidson says : " On the 

 24th and 2.5th May we obtamed two clutches of its eggs consisting 

 of four slightly incubated and three fresh eggs, and on the 28th May 

 I found a pair with small young ones." This was in Kashmir near 

 Ganjadgar, and I have eggs in my own collection taken by Battray 

 at Danga Gali as late as the 14th June. Lindsay Smith records 

 hard-set eggs as late as the end of August, and he twice came on 

 nests and eggs, broken by cattle, at the end of July. 



In Europe they seem to breed a great deal earlier than in India. 

 Many commence breeding operations in March, and I have European 

 eggs taken in March, April and May, my latest date being that of a 

 clutch taken in Germany on 2.5th May. They are, however, some- 

 times much later than this. Davidson writing to me on the 6th 

 August says that as he is writing there is a Woodcock sitting on 

 four eggs in his own preserves, and he adds that this is the third 

 sitting, the bird having hatched off two previously. 



Hewitson says that the " Woodcock lays its eggs amongst the 

 dry grass or dead leaves which form the surface of the woods and 

 plantations which it frequents. It is an early breeder, frequently 

 having young ones in the middle of April." 



Yarrell describes the nest as being " all in dry warm situations 

 amongst dead grass and leaves without any attempt at concealment. 

 The nest was wholly composed of dead leaves, chiefly the common 

 fern, loosely laid together and without any lining. 



"It would, however, be more proper to say beds than nests; for 

 like those of the Plover, they are merely slight hollows, formed by 

 the nestling of the birds in dry, soft spots or on the fallen leaves." 



Seebohm (Eggs of British Birds) merely says that the nest is 

 placed on the ground and is little more than a hollow scratched in 

 the earth and lined with a few leaves and a little dry grass. 



The eggs appear to be always four in number, and I have no 



