WOODCOCK.- 11 



page 570, mentions having seen an old Woodcock fly off 

 with a young chick in her claws. A boy fishing disturbed 

 a nest, the birds from which flew in different directions, 

 one with a bird in its bill. The boy followed the weakest 

 of the brood, and discovered it to be a young Woodcock, 

 which is in the possession of Mr. Burgoin, gamekeeper 

 to the Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth. The bird 

 which the boy first saw, was one of the parents con- 

 veying its offspring from the impending danger, across the 

 river at Ashford. Derby Mercury. Mr. L. Lloyd, in his 

 Field Sports of the North of Europe, using the words of 

 Mr. Grieff, and again in his Scandinavian Adventures, 

 says, " If, in shooting, you meet with a brood of Wood- 

 cocks, and the young ones cannot fly, the old bird takes 

 them separately between her feet, and flies from the dogs 

 with a moaning cry." A woodcut in illustration is in- 

 serted, vol. ii. page 404. 



An interesting account of the nesting, and care of the 

 young, displayed by the Woodcock, will be found detailed 

 at length in the notes to the Lays of the Deer Forest, vol. 

 ii. page 259, from which I hope to be excused making 

 some short extracts. 



" The Woodcock breeds to a considerable extent in most 

 parts of the forest, and also in other woods of Moray- 

 shire, the Aird of Inverness, and on the Dee, the Don, 

 the Spey, and other parts of the Highlands, but, within 

 our knowledge, nowhere so numerously as in Tarnaway. 

 Without any search, and merely in the accidental occa- 

 sions of roe-hunting, we have found in one season nine- 

 teen nests with eggs. It would, however, be more proper 

 to say beds rather than nests ; for, like those of the Plover, 

 they are merely slight hollows formed by the nestling of 

 the birds in dry soft spots, or on the fallen leaves. As 

 the nests are on dry ground, the old ones will sometimes 



