224 SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



that they are carried in the bill. Nor do they upon 

 this point agree amongst themselves. 



The late L. Lloyd, in his Scandinavian Ad- 

 ventures, wrote : " If in shooting you meet with a 

 brood of Woodcocks, and the young ones cannot 

 fly, the old bird takes them separately between her 

 feet, and flies from the dogs with a moaning cry." 

 Again, in his Game Birds and Wildfowl of Sweden 

 and Norway (p. 194), he thus refers to the habit as 

 observed by a friend : " ' Once during a hare-hunt,' 

 writes my friend, M.Anders Oterdahl, 'I myself 

 shot a Woodcock, flushed by the dogs, and when 

 flying at about six feet from the ground, that was 

 bearing an unfledged young one in her claws. It 

 seemed to me she grasped it with her feet, one foot 

 having hold of one wing and the other foot of the 

 other. Though, owing to intervening branches, I 

 did not observe the old bird when she rose, I was 

 fortunately so near to her as clearly to see what 

 I have stated. Afterwards I found two other young 

 ones under a neighbouring bush, where they had 

 retreated for safety.' When the above story ap- 

 peared in my former work, Scandinavian Adventures, 

 it was looked on by many, both in Sweden and 



