14 WOODCOCKS. 



tried my luck again : this time an owlet came to light, less 

 than half the size of the first, and apparently youthful in 

 proportion to his littleness ; he also was consigned to the 

 pocket, and then a third, exactly like the second. After a 

 good deal of groping ahout, I felt pretty sure there were 

 no more owls or owlets to be found, but there was some- 

 thing very much like eggs. So I ventured to feel with an 

 ungloved hand, and brought out three eggs, one at a time ; 

 they were very warm, and were half buried in something 

 like highly dried pulverized mice, which I presume to have 

 been produced by long trampling on the pellets cast up by 

 the old owls. Having carefully deposited one egg in each 

 waistcoat-pocket, and a third in my mouth, and having 

 screwed up in paper some of the dust, I commenced my 

 descent, and landing in safety, sat down to examine my 

 treasures. One of the old owls returned in the mean time, 

 perched on a bough at a little distance, and strove to look 

 as philosophical as possible under her loss. Determined 

 to understand as much as possible of the economy of this 

 ' happy family/ I proceeded to pierce the eggs. One was 

 addled, this was not the one I brought down in my mouth, 

 the others were ' sot-hard/ as our countrymen express it : 

 the owlets were too far advanced towards hatching, to per- 

 mit of the eggs being blown. 



WOODCOCKS frequently breed with us. I recollect 

 meeting with young ones on many occasions. Once in 

 particular I remember putting up an old hen and three 

 young ones, two-thirds grown, when rabbit-shooting in a 

 field called the ' fourteen acres/ adjoining Munsted farm, 

 and belonging to the Milford estate. We have two kinds 

 of woodcock, the little black cock, which is comparatively 

 rare, and the large pale cock, which is common. I have 



