Papular JBtctumarji of &m'matrtr Mature. 745 



rishrnent. Bass, the intrepid surgeon and 

 voyager, whose name is commemorated in 

 the Strait separating Van Dieman's Land 

 and Australia, first found this curious ani- 

 mal. The natives eat its flesh, and, as is 

 usual with them, roast it. It is sometimes 

 brought to this country ; the only specimen 

 we have seen was very dull and unintelli- 

 gent. It has a clumsy body, and a large 

 flattish head ; fore feet with five toes, armed 

 with crooked nails, hind feet with four, 

 and a little tubercle without a nail in 

 place of the great toe. The hair is coarse, 

 thinly set upon the belly, thicker on the 

 bade and head, and thickest upon the loins 

 and rump ; the colour of it a light sandy 

 brown of varying shades, but darkest along 

 the back. According to the account given 

 of it by the natives, the Wombat of the 

 mountains is never seen during the day, 

 but lives retired in his hole, or burrow, 

 which is long and winding; it feeds only 

 during the night ; but that of the islands is 

 said to feed in all parts of the day. 



WOODCOCK. (.Scolopax rusticola.) A 

 species of miaratory birds of the Snipe tribe ; 

 measuring fourteen inches in length, twenty- 

 six in breadth, and weighing about twelve 

 ounces. The shape of the head is remark- 

 able, being rather obtusely triangular than 

 round, with the eyes placed near the top, 

 and the ears very forward. .The upper 

 mandible, which measures about three inches, 

 is furrowed nearly its whole length, and at 

 the tip it projects beyond, and hangs over, 

 the under one, ending in a kind of knob, 

 which is susceptible of the finest feeling, and 

 calculated, by that means, to find the small 

 worms in the soft moist grounds, from whence 

 it extracts them with its sharp-pointed 

 tongue. The crown of the head is ash 

 colour ; the nape and back part of the neck 

 are black, marbled with three bars of rusty 

 red : a black line extends from the corners 

 of the mouth to the eyes, the orbits of which 

 are pale buff : the whole of the under parts 

 are yellowish white, numerously barred 

 with dark waved lines. The tail is black, 

 indented across with reddish spots on the 

 edges : the tip Is ash above, and glossy white 

 below. The legs are short, feathered to the 

 knees, and are either of a sallow flesh-colour 

 or a bluish hue. The upper parts .of the 

 plumage are so mottled, barred, streaked, 

 and variegated, as would render a minute 

 description both difficult and tedious. The 

 black, white, red, gray, brown, rufous, and 

 yellow, are so disposed in rows, crossed and 

 broken at intervals by lines and marks of 

 different shapes, that the whole, seen at a 

 little distance, appear to be undistinguish- 

 ably blended together and confused ; the 

 sportsman, however, by being accustomed to 

 it, is enabled to discover it (among the wi- 

 thered stalks and leaves of ferns, sticks, 

 moss, and grasses, by which it is generally 

 sheltered in its moist and solitary retreats) 

 by its full dark eye and glossy silver-white 

 tipped tail. The Woodcock leaves the 

 countries bordering upon the Baltic in the 

 autumn and setting in of winter, on its 

 | route to this country. They neither come 



in flocks, nor remain near the shores to take 

 their rest longer than a day. In temperate 

 weather, they retire to the mossy moors and 

 bleak mountainous parts of the country ; but 

 as soon as the frost sets in, and the snow 

 begins to fall, they return to lower and 

 warmer situations, where they meet with 

 boggy grounds and springs, and little oozing 

 mossy rills which are rarely frozen, and seek 

 the shelter of close bushes of holly, furze, &c. 

 in the woody glens by day, and remove to 

 different haunts and feed only in the night. 

 The female makes her nest on the ground, 

 generally at the root or stump of a decayed 

 tree ; it is carelessly formed of dry fibres 

 and leaves, upon which she lays four or five 

 rusty gray eggs, blotched nnd marked with 

 dusky spots. The flight of the Woodcock is 

 rapid when pursued by the sportsman. Its 

 flesh is highly esteemed. 



WOOD-CRACKER. A name not un- 

 commonly applied to the Nuthatch (Sitta 

 Europaea). [See NUTHATCH.] 



WOODLARK. [Sec LARK.] 



WOOD-LEOPARD. The name applied 

 to a beautiful species of Moth (.Zeuze.ro, JZs- 

 culi). [See ZEUZERA.] 



WOODPECKERS. A great group of Zy- 

 godactylous Birds, well characterized by 

 their striking and singular habits, to which 

 their whole structure is singularly adapted. 

 Mr. Bewick has described the family as 

 having the bill large, strong, and fitted 

 for its employment : the end of it is sharp 

 and formed like a wedge, with which 

 it pierces the bark of trees, and penetrates 

 through the outside sound wood of the tree 

 to the inside decayed part, where its food is 

 lodged. Its neck is short and thick, and 

 furnished with powerful muscles, which en- 

 able it to strike with such force as to be 

 heard at a considerable distance : the noise 

 thus occasioned is not by vibration round a 

 hole, as some authors assert, but by a succes- 

 sion of strokes repeated with surprising ra- 

 pidity. Its tongue is long and taper, and 

 capable of great elongation ; at the end of it 

 there is in most of the species a hard horny 

 substance, curving slightly downwards, 

 which penetrates into the crevices of trees, 

 and extracts the insects and their eggs which 

 are lodged there : it is also lubricated by a 

 glutinous secretion. The tail consists often 

 stiff, sharp-pointed feathers, rough on the 

 under sides, and bent inwards, by which it 

 supports itself on the trunks of trees while in 

 search of food : for this purpose its feet are 

 short and thick, and its toes, which are 

 placed two forward and two backward, are 

 armed with strong hooked claws, by which 

 it clings firmly, and creeps up and down in 

 all directions. 



Mr. Yarrell observes that another anato- 

 mical peculiarity remarkable in the skeleton 

 of the Woodpecker, but admirably adapted 

 to its habits, is the small size of the keel of 

 the breast-bone. "Moderate powers of 

 flight," he says, "sufficient to transport the 

 bird from tree to tree, are all that it seems 

 to require ; large pectoral muscles with a 

 deep keel to the breast-bone would to this 



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