WOODCOCK. 293 



to her. His friend had observed the same proceeding 

 on several occasions. 



Space will not admit of my referring at any great 

 length to that much vexed question, the possibility of 

 accurately determining the sexes of woodcocks through 

 size and plumage, but Mr. Gould, who has had unusual 

 opportunities for investigating this point, and has 

 dissected, measured, and weighed, several hundred 

 specimens, asserts in his work on " The Birds of Great 

 Britain," that at the end of a day's shooting, he is 

 still unable to say with certainty, from external features 

 only, which are males and which females. This he 

 attributes to the fact of there being two distinct races 

 large and small (as occurs in many other birds) though 

 not admitting of specific rank, and adds, (e during their 

 vernal migration these races generally keep separate 

 from each other, and some nights will be composed of 

 a small red race, while others will be exclusively large 

 dark grey birds." As with the common snipe, "the 

 male is undoubtedly the larger bird " ; such he believes 

 to be the case with the woodcock, " if there be any 

 difference between the sexes," but on dissection he 

 has proved " that many of the long-billed birds are 

 females." As to the outer primary of the wing forming 

 a sexual distinction as supposed by some sportsmen, 

 the males being said to have the external margin of that 

 feather plain or devoid of tooth-like markings, whilst the 

 same feather in females exhibits such markings, Mr. 

 Gould thus disposes of that theory from his own experi- 

 ence. "They [the tooth-like markings] are absent in 

 both sexes of very old birds ; for I have wings of females 

 in my collection in which the outer margin of the first 

 primary is totally devoid of the toothed character. 

 When the young woodcock assumes his first primaries, 

 which he does at the age of two or three weeks, the 

 outer feather is strongly marked ; as he grows older 



