WOODCOCKS ; ISLAND OF TERCEIEA. U3 



According to Mr. Pennant, " a few woodcocks are 

 supposed to remain in this country every year. In Case 

 Wood, about two miles from TunLridge, a few breed 

 almost annually, the young birds having been shot there 

 in the month of August, and they were found to be as 

 healthy and vigorous as in winter, but not so well 

 tasted."* Latham states that, "On the 1st of May 

 1769, the gamekeeper of Horace jNIann, Esq. shot a 

 couple of woodcocks in Chellenden Wood, and also a 

 couple the preceding day, which were sitting on their 

 young." He likewise says that " a friend of his found a 

 female woodcock sitting on her eggs, and the male close 

 at hand ; she was so tame as to suffer him to touch her 

 without rising; and about the year 1781 a brace of old 

 woodcocks, with five young ones, full fledged, were 

 found ; three of the young were taken and presented 

 to a lady in the neighbourhood, one of which soon died 

 and is now in her possession. 



Mr. St. John mentions in his work of " The Wild 

 Sports of the Highlands,"' that a boy brought him a 

 young woodcock, nearly full-grown and fledged, in the 

 second week in April. This proves that when the 

 woodcocks remain in this island they hatch earlier than 

 most other birds. This author further states that since 

 extensive fir and larch plantations have been made in 

 different parts of Scotland many woodcocks remain in 

 the spring to breed in them. 



* Jesse says: "I dined, in Jiine 1834, -vrith. a friend at HoUyeombe 

 in Susses. On each day I partook of a leash of young woodcocks. 

 They were fat and excellent, and nearly fall gro\^-n. They begin to 

 breed in the Hollycombe woods early in the year, generally about the 

 middle of February. A hen woodcock with her young may frequently 

 be seen in the woods, but sometimes running across the grass opposite 

 the hoxise." 



