WOODCOCK. 589 



That some Woodcocks remain in tliis country almost every 

 season, and produce their young here, there are many proofs, 

 and that they are also very early breeders seems equally cer- 

 tain. The young are usually hatched by the end of March, 

 or the beginning of April. Tn ]836, Mr. Blyth saw two 

 young Woodcocks on the 20th of April. On the 22nd of 

 April 1838, Mr. Gould exhibited at the Zoological Society 

 two young Woodcocks, apparently three Aveeks old ; and I 

 have ill my collection a young Woodcock five or six weeks 

 old, -which I bought on the 23rd of April 1822, in the market 

 at Orleans. Scarcely a season passes that young Woodcocks 

 are not sent up to Leadenhall Market for sale, intended for the 

 table ; these, by my notes, have generally occurred in May : 

 the price about seven shillings each. In the Fifth Earl of 

 Nortliumberland''s household book, begun in 1512, the price 

 of a Woodcock is stated to be one penny or three-halfpence ; 

 and in the Norfolk household book, which begins with 1519, 

 and has been frequently quoted here, the reward for four 

 Woodcocks on the 18tli of October, four-pence; and in an- 

 other instance, paid for three Woodcocks, sixpence. 



In proof that the Woodcock breeds frequently in the Brit- 

 ish Islands, particularly in Scotland, two or three of the most 

 interesting of the instances arc thus recorded. At the Zoo- 

 logical Society, July 24th 1832, a letter was read, addressed 

 by Sir F. Mackenzie to the Secretary of the Society : it re- 

 lated to the breeding of some Woodcocks, Scolopax rus- 

 ticola, Linn., at Conan, on the eastern coast of Ross-shire, 

 the estate of that gentleman. For several years past, two 

 or three of these birds have occasionally been seen in the 

 woods, and about five years since a couple were shot just 

 before St. Swithin''s day : these were, however, old birds, and 

 from their being covered with fat, it was evident that they 

 had not nested. The keeper, in fact, had never been able 

 to find one of tlieir nests or to see a young bird, until the 



