18 SCOLOPACIDJJ. 



" A Woodcock shot at Audley End about seven years 

 ago, weighed full sixteen ounces, and was much the largest- 

 looking bird, as well as the heaviest, I ever saw." 



A note in the last edition of Pennant's British Zoology 

 is as follows : <{ I have been credibly informed that one 

 was killed near Holywell, which reached the weight of 

 twenty ounces ; " and in JDaniel's Rural Sports there is a 

 record of one which weighed seventeen ounces. 



Varieties in plumage are not uncommon, sometimes with 

 a portion of white, or entirely of a dull yellowish white, 

 or buff colour, but the most remarkable variety I have 

 seen was preserved by Mr. Leadbeater; every feather of 

 this bird was of a pure and delicate untinted white, the bill 

 and legs very pale wood-brown. 



A communication was made to the Zoological Society 

 to the following effect. In the year 1833, a Woodcock 

 with white feathers in the wings was observed in a cover 

 on the manor of Monkleigh, near Torrington, in the county 

 of Devon. The same bird, or one of exactly similar 

 plumage, re-appeared in the same place during the four 

 succeeding seasons, in which period it was so repeatedly 

 shot at by different persons without effect, that it at last 

 acquired among the country people the name of " the 

 witch." In the year 1837, however, it was killed by John 

 Piper of Monkleigh, while following the owner of the 

 property which it frequented, the Rev. J. T. Pine Coffin, 

 of Portledge, who has now the stuffed specimen in his 

 possession. 



In reference to the subject forming the vignette, I may 

 explain that in the month of November, 1830, Sir Francis 

 Chantrey, when shooting at Holkham, killed two Wood- 

 cocks at one shot. To record this event, Sir Francis 

 Chantrey sculptured two Woodcocks on a marble tablet, 

 which he presented to Mr. Coke, afterwards Earl of Lei- 



