10 SCOLOPACIDJ:. 



with the old birds leading them about, have been seen by 

 the keepers of that gentleman, who remarks in his letter, 

 that, on going to the nest, the old bird did not rise until 

 he had approached within the distance of a yard. They 

 were all in dry, warm situations, amongst dead grass 

 and leaves, without any attempt at concealment. The 

 nest sent was wholly composed of dead leaves, chiefly 

 of the common fern, loosely laid together, and without any 

 lining. The underwood was thin, and of not more than 

 from seven to ten years' growth. There was good reason 

 to believe that Woodcocks had bred in these covers in 

 previous years." In the tenth volume of the Magazine of 

 Natural History, for 1837, at pages 120 and 337, are two 

 other accounts of Woodcocks breeding in Scotland : the 

 first at Brahan Castle, in Ross-shire, where two nests were 

 pointed out by the keeper ; the second at Castle Forbes, 

 in Aberdeenshire. The game-keepers, both at Brahan 

 Castle and at Conan, assured those to whom they showed 

 the different nests, that they had seen the old Woodcocks 

 carry their young in their claws ; and this account was 

 positively spoken to as a fact, by a third person who had 

 witnessed it. Another writer, in the same volume, states 

 that he had seen a similar act performed in the woods 

 at Dunkeld, a locality in which Woodcocks have often 

 been known to breed. In June, 1842, a gentleman saw a 

 brood in the park at Drummond Castle, in Perthshire, 

 and observed the old bird repeatedly take up one of the 

 young ones in its claws. Bewick, quoting Buffon, says, 

 " They sometimes take a weak one under their throat, and 

 convey it more than a thousand paces." White, in his 

 Natural History of Selborne, quotes the words of Scopoli 

 in reference to the Woodcock, " pullos rostro portat 

 fugiens ab hoste" and comments upon it as improbable. A 

 writer in the fifth volume of the Magazine before quoted, 



