SNIPE. 89 



WOODCOCK. Scolopax rusticula, L. 



Yarrell, iii. p. 320; Harting, p. 50; Dresser, vii. p. 615; See- 

 lolim, iii. 231 ; Ibis List, p. 165 ; Pulteney's List, p. 14. 



The Woodcock is a regular winter visitant, a few 

 pairs annually remaining to breed in favourable 

 localities. A nest with four eggs was found in Clen- 

 ston Wood in May 1869. The singular habit which 

 this bird has of transporting its unfledged young to 

 and from its feeding-ground is now well ascertained. 

 See Mr. Harting's account of this interesting fact in 

 The Zoologist, 1879, p. 483, with a most character- 

 istic illustration by Joseph Wolf. 



GREAT SNIPE. Gallinago major, (Gmelin). 



Yarrell, iii. p. 336; Harting, p. 51 ; Dresser, vii. p. 631 ; Ibis 

 List, p. 165; Scolopax major, Seebohm, iii. p. 237; Pul- 

 teney's List, p. 14. 



The Great Snipe is a rare and accidental visitant 

 in autumn, when on migration from its northern breed- 

 ing haunts to the Mediterranean and Africa, where 

 it winters. Pulteney expresses some uncertainty 

 about its occurrence in his time in Dorsetshire, but 

 states that one was shot on the Dorset side of the 

 Avon in the winter of 1793. A manuscript entry in 

 Mr. Dale's copy of " Pulteney's List," in his hand- 

 writing, runs thus : "I have seen two or three Great 

 or Solitary Snipes in Ilsington Wood." One was 

 shot at Duntishe Common, Buckland Newton (Cap- 

 tain Stuart Carr Glyn), one near Binegar Hall, 



