172 WOODCOCK. 



we have also authentic records of their breeding;* 

 and various scattered instances have been noted, in 

 different periodicals, &c., of nests being found in 

 other and more southern districts of England. But 

 all these can merely be looked upon as cases on the 

 very limit of their breeding range, and not at all 

 similar to birds, which, though they remove, or par- 

 tially migrate, yet regularly and in numbers breed 

 with us. 



Like a great proportion of the aquatic birds, a 

 dry spot is selected for the nest, often at a consi- 

 derable distance from water. By one writer, the 

 nests were said to be all placed in " dry, warm 

 situations, amongst dead grass and leaves, without 

 any attempt at concealment ;" and, by Sir Francis 

 Mackenzie, " the soil where the nests were found is 

 gravelly and rather dry ; the grass tolerably long, 

 without underwood; and the trees, oak, birch, 

 and larch, not exceeding thirty years growth." In 

 Norway, " they (eggs) were placed upon the bare 

 ground, under some brushwood, and in a place from 

 which the timber had been cleared, and in which 

 the young spruce firs were again springing." j* The 

 eggs are of a pale purplish-brown, sometimes yel- 

 lowish-white, with irregular markings of a deep 

 brown tint. 



The Woodcock, when first arriving in this country, 

 may be found in whin covers on the coast, or at a 

 great distance from wood, often on the moors, amidst 

 * Selby. f Hewitson. 



