THE WOODCOCK 397 



responsible observers and they are too numerous to mention indi- 

 vidually affirm that the young are carried by their parents down to 

 the feeding-grounds at night and are brought back again in the morn- 

 ing. Dr. F. D. Godman, an ornithologist of no mean repute, avers 

 that in the Azores this practice is a matter of daily occurrence. 1 There 

 is no need, surely, to-day, to recapitulate the controversy, which has 

 been waged through long years, as to whether woodcock do or do not 

 carry their young. There can be no doubt about the fact. One cannot, 

 however, speak with the same assurance as to how this feat is per- 

 formed, but it seems certain that the fond parents will perform this 

 office for their young even after they are big enough to bear the 

 burden of their own bodies. Scopoli, so long ago as 1769, says, "pullos 

 rostro portat fugiens ab hoste" whereon Gilbert White remarks that 

 " the long unweildy bill of the woodcock is perhaps the worst adapted 

 of any among the winged creation for such a feat of natural affection." 

 Nor does the bird bear her living load held between the bill and the 

 breast, nor between the thighs and pressed against the breast by the 

 beak, but suspended by the feet. This at any rate seems to be the 

 correct interpretation of what obtains according to the testimony of 

 Mr. Moffat, an Irish naturalist of considerable experience. On this 

 subject he wrote, in the Irish Naturalist, 1899, " On the morning of 

 April 19, the female, as I approached, sat closer than had been her 

 wont, and on rising I was almost immediately struck with a curious 

 yellowish object that seemed to hang from between her legs. The 

 bird's flight was slower than usual, and her long bill was plainly seen 

 to be directed forwards, in the ordinary attitude, and not in any way 

 used to steady or support the object carried." The late Duke of 

 Beaufort, so long ago as 1850, when in the New Forest, came upon a 

 female woodcock watering her three young ones at a rivulet. She 

 picked up "one in each claw" and flew off with them. " I hid in a 

 high gorse brake close by, and saw her return in four or five minutes 

 and pick up the remaining bird also in her claw." Mr. De Yisme 



1 Py craft, A History of Birds, p. 225. 



