BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



are in some years considerable, and if a 

 stricter watch were kept on unlicensed 

 gunners along the foreshore of East Anglia, 

 very much larger numbers would find their 

 way westwards instead of to Leadenhall. As it 

 is, the wanderers arrive, not necessarily, as has 

 been freely asserted, in poor condition, but 

 always tired out by their journey, and 

 numbers are secured before they have time 

 to recover their strength. Yet those which do 

 recover fly right across England, some con- 

 tinuing the journey to Ireland, and stragglers 

 even, with help no doubt from easterly gales, 

 having been known to reach America. 



The woodcock is interesting as a parent 

 because it is one of the very few birds that 

 carry their young from place to place, and 

 the only British bird that transports them 

 clasped between her legs. A few others, like 

 the swans and grebes, bear the young ones on 

 the back, but the woodcock's method is 

 unique. Scopoli first drew attention to his own 

 version of the habit hi the words " pullos 

 rostro portat," and it was old Gilbert White 

 who, with his usual eye to the practical, 

 doubted whether so long and slender a bill 

 24 



