216 OUR RARER BIRDS 



Sandpipers and upland Plovers assume their nuptial orna- 

 ment, we also find that they change their haunts accordingly, 

 and then frequent moors and marshes, where their showy 

 dress is least conspicuous. 



The Woodcock breeds early ; and the habits of the male 

 birds during the pairing season undergo a most extraordinary 

 change. They cease their skulking habits, and in early 

 morning and in the evening's dusk fly up and down the open 

 spaces in the woods, or along the drives and keepers' paths, 

 or even in the fields close to the woods and plantations. Up 

 and down, to and fro, he flies, uttering a peculiar whirring 

 note, which is most probably equivalent to the drumming of 

 the Snipe, and uttered for a similar object namely, to charm 

 and to win the female. At this season the male Woodcock 

 is also very pugnacious, and combats between rival birds often 

 take place. Early in April the pairs of Woodcocks seek out 

 their nesting-places. In some dry quiet corner of the wood 

 or plantation, amongst the tall withered bracken, or at the 

 foot of a tree, where the dead autumn leaves have drifted, the 

 nest is made. It is a small depression, rather carefully 

 and smoothly lined with dry leaves and bits of grass and 

 fern. Like those of the Snipe, the eggs of the Woodcock are 

 always four in number when the full complement is laid. 

 They are huffish-brown, or pale yellowish-brown in ground 

 colour, spotted and blotched with reddish and grayish brown, 

 principally on the larger end. Eggs of the Woodcock are 

 somewhat conspicuous objects, so that we find the sitting-bird 

 keeps close upon them, and shields them with her own 

 beautifully protective dress, until she is almost trod upon and 

 forced reluctantly to leave them. When you know the where- 

 abouts of her nest, it is easy to steal softly towards it and 

 observe how closely her mottled russet -brown plumage 

 harmonises with the rich brown tints of last year's bracken 

 and the dead oak leaves. I have never known the Woodcock 



