128 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 
materially, and by means of a peculiar kind of net, duly arranged 
before the day begins to dawn, the fowler is enabled to capture 
all, or almost all, who have been attracted by their peculiar 
instincts to the vicinity of any given hill. The Reeves lay each 
her four eggs, which vary in colour from olive-green to a yellow- 
ish stone colour, and are spotted and blotched with “liver 
colour” and rich brown. 
203. WOOD-COCK—(Scolopax rusticola). 
One of our most universally recognised “birds of passage,” 
coming to us sometimes in the autumn (always, at least, begin- 
ning to arrive in October), and leaving us again in thie spring ; 
still no season passes, there is reason to believe, in which many 
pairs do not remain to breed, and that too in many different 
parts of the kingdom. It was an object to me some twenty 
years ago to obtain eggs of the Woodcock, and I applied to a 
person in Norfolk, who had not any difficulty in procuring for 
me egos from the gamekeeper of a neighbouring estate out of 
two different nests which had been deserted by their owners. 
My friend added the information, that scarcely a year passed in 
which one nest or more of Woodcocks was not known of on the 
estate in question. The nest, a very loose one, is made of deaa 
leaves and the like, Bracken leaves appearing to be commonly 
used for the purpose. The eggs are usually about four in 
number, and want the peculiar pointed shape common to almost 
all the other birds of the Order. They are of a dirty yellowish- 
white, a good deal blotched and spotted with two or three shades 
of pale brown and purplish-grey. The old bird is known to 
transport her young, if occasion demands, from one place to 
another. She has been seen doing so repeatedly, and by good 
observers, generally making use of both feet for the purpose, 
sometimes one only ; and, it is said, using her beak sometimes for 
the same purpose.—Lg. 1, plate LX. 
