WOODCOCK. 291 



previous summer, at Attlebridge, Mr. Micklethwait's 

 gamekeeper found five or six nests, and " this was 

 not an exceptional case, as for several years past he 

 had been aware that some were to be found, and even 

 captured a young one." 



On the 6th of May, 1867, a pair of woodcocks were 

 seen in a low moist carr close to Hoveton Broad, but 

 no nest was discovered ; and on the 17th of that month 

 a nestling was sent up to Norwich to be stuffed, which, 

 with three others, had been hatched on Mr. H. N. 

 Burroughes's estate at Burlingham. 



Last of all, to my knowledge, up to the present time, 

 a nest with two eggs was found in a plantation at 

 Bixley, near Norwich, about the 24th of April, 1868, 

 and in this case, also, the bird allowed itself to be 

 photographed on its nest* by Mr. John Gurney, of 

 Earlham, and eventually brought off her young ones. 



From such repeated instances, then, of the breeding 

 of the woodcock, there can be no question that were 

 they protected in the early spring, the number that now 

 remain with us throughout the summer would be greatly 

 increased, and while the same birds would return again 

 and againf to their accustomed haunts, as do other 



* The extreme tameness of the brooding woodcock is mentioned 

 by Pennant, who states that "a person who discovered one on 

 its nest, has often stood over and even stroked it : notwithstand- 

 ing which it hatched the young, and in due time disappeared with 

 them." It seems, also, in former days to have ranked with the 

 dotterel as a foolish bird, for in Willughby's " Ornithology" it is 

 remarked, that "amongst us in England this bird is infamous 

 for its simplicity or folly ; so that a woodcock is proverbially used 

 for a simple, foolish person." 



* Of the attachment for, and return to, any particular spot 

 evinced by the woodcock, two remarkable instances are given in 

 Daniel's "Rural Sports." In 1798, a woodcock caught alive in 

 a rabbit net was turned loose with a brass ring on its left leg. 

 This occurred in February, and in the following December the 



2p2 



