296 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



by Mr. Edward Newman in the " Zoologist " for 1855, 

 (p. 4631), all the markings peculiar to the woodcock 

 in its usual plumage were in this bird more or less 

 faintly indicated by the most delicate buff or fawn 

 tint on a ground of white, whilst those parts which 

 in the normal colouring of the species are deepest, were 

 here also most plainly discernable. The whole of the 

 under parts were white, yet still showing the usual bars 

 when closely examined, resembling the faintest water 

 markings, visible only in the strongest light. On the 

 16th of November, 1864, a curiously pied bird, now in the 

 possession of Lord Hastings, was shot at Melton Con- 

 stable. In this specimen all the primaries of one wing, 

 except the fourth, and the wing-coverts, were pure 

 white, and in the other wing the three first primaries 

 and one or two feathers in the coverts; the rest of 

 the plumage being of the usual tint. On the 17th of 

 March, 1859, a woodcock was also killed near Lowes fcoft^ 

 in Suffolk, having the back and wings thickly sprinkled 

 with white feathers, as were also the sides of the neck 

 and the under parts generally. 



Selby mentions the exquisite sense of touch possessed 

 by this and allied species from the nervous apparatus 

 distributed over the anterior portion of the beak, 

 enabling them to detect their food unerringly when 

 boring deep in the soil, and also the power of expand- 

 ing the tips of the mandibles, in order to seize and 

 draw out their prey, but as far as the upper mandible, 

 at least, is concerned, this strange faculty appears 

 to be developed in a remarkable manner in the wood- 

 cock. Mr. F. Norgate, of Sparham, on one occasion 

 having slightly winged a woodcock took it home 

 alive, and he assures me that the flexibility of the 

 upper mandible was so great that it resembled more 

 the writhings of a worm than a beak, and from the 

 slight sketch, with which he furnished me at the time, 



