THE WOODCOCK. 233 



young are hatched, the old birds are obliged to 

 carry them to the feeding-ground, which is often at 

 some distance. The young, though able to run 

 immediately, are tender helpless little things, and 

 could by no means scramble through the tangled 

 heather and herbage which often surround their 

 nest, perhaps for many hundred yards. It long 

 puzzled me how this portage was effected. That 

 the old birds carried their young I had long since 

 ascertained, having often seen them in the months of 

 April and May in the act of doing so, as they flew 

 towards nightfall from the woods down to the 

 swamps in the low grounds. From close observa- 

 tion, however, I found out that the old Woodcock 

 carries her young, even when larger than a Snipe, 

 not in her claws, which seem quite incapable of 

 holding up any weight, but by clasping the little bird 

 tightly between her thighs, and so holding it tight 

 towards her own body. In the summer and spring 

 evenings the Woodcocks may be seen so employed 

 passing to and fro, and uttering a gentle cry, on 

 their way from the woods to the marshes. They 

 not only carry their young to feed, but also, if the 

 brood is suddenly come upon in the daytime, the old 



