278 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



and I have every reason to rely on his veracity. 

 Swans carry their young ones between their 

 wings, so perhaps woodcocks do the same. 

 Some naturalists assert that these birds carry 

 their young with their feet, stating that they 

 have often been witnessed in the act. I am 

 unable either to contradict or confirm the state- 

 ment, but when the shape of the foot of a wood- 

 cock is taken into consideration, it would seem 

 a difficult matter for it to grasp a young bird 

 securely enough for the purpose of carrying it. 

 The structure of the foot is not adapted either for 

 grasping or perching. A woodcock never perches, 

 for the simple reason that it is unable to do so, 

 and w r hen dead its claws do not contract as do the 

 feet of perching birds, but remain extended. It 

 is, however, most generally believed that wood- 

 cocks carry their young between their thighs, 

 close up under their breasts. 



Woodcocks frequently evince a curious and 

 unaccountable partiality for certain localities. 

 Year after year they will select one or two special 

 coverts entirely to the exclusion of those adjoining, 

 although the conditions of all may be apparently 

 precisely similar. Some few years ago I flushed 

 and shot a woodcock in a large covert in the county 

 of Durham. For twenty years no woodcock had 

 been seen in that particular wood, although the 

 surrounding coverts may generally be reckoned 

 upon to hold a fair number of these birds every 

 season. Two years subsequently I was again 



