54 BIRDS OF LOCH AND MOUNTAIN 



number from three to four, but unlike most other 

 birds of this family, which invariably lay four, the 

 Woodcocks' nests I have seen have as often as 

 not contained three eggs only, which harmonise to 

 such an astonishing extent with the surrounding 

 objects that it takes a very sharp eye to discover 

 them. In shape they are not so pyriform as those 

 of the Curlew or Lapwing, and have an olive 

 ground colour with numerous spots of a darker 

 brown ; sometimes the ground colour is more of 

 a greenish tinge. 



The mother bird is usually an exceedingly close 

 sitter, and as she crouches low on the ground the 

 only thing that betrays that she is not a stick or 

 piece of bark is her large bright eye, which, it is 

 said, she will half close in her attempt to avoid 

 detection. A year or two ago I discovered a Wood- 

 cock sitting very hard near the borders of a fir 

 wood ; and, as it was late in the afternoon, I 

 carefully marked the spot and returned with my 

 camera in the morning. When the bird saw me 

 she sat absolutely motionless, and I carefully 

 stalked her with my camera foot by foot. Each 

 moment I expected her to fly off ; but, no even 

 when I w,as not more than four feet from her she 

 still kept her ground, and, having exhausted my 

 stock of plates, I left without flushing her from 

 her eggs. A day or two later, on revisiting the spot, 

 I found these hatched off and the young gone, 

 so that the mother's bravery had been rewarded. 



As a result of such early nesting, the Wood- 

 cock have often to sit through snowstorms, and 

 very pathetic they look as they brood with snow 

 lying all around them, and a biting northerly gale 

 blowing through the trees. If the storm should 



