262 ON SURREY HILLS. 



ments." A two -feet rule and a measuring- tape, 

 backed by the best library in the world, will not 

 make a naturalist. A practical naturalist knows well 

 that all birds and animals vary ; and you will find as 

 much difference, comparatively speaking, in the sizes 

 and dispositions of a nest of young birds or a litter of 

 animals, as you will in a family of human beings. 

 They will not all reach the same size, nor will they 

 attain to equal depths of colouring. Three conditions 

 also make a vast distinction birthplace, food, and 

 climatic differences. This applies more especially to 

 the birds that migrate more or less. Great numbers 

 of woodcocks breed in the United Kingdom every 

 year, but the great body of them come from foreign 

 shores and return again to them, as many at least as 

 escape capture. Woodcocks vary greatly in size and 

 weight : well-fed birds will run from ten, eleven, and 

 twelve ounces up to fourteen or fifteen ; some again 

 will not weigh much over eight ounces. 



There have been well-authenticated instances of 

 individual birds being killed weighing twenty -two 

 ounces, and more ; but as I am not writing from the 

 sporting point of view, we need not enter into the 

 matter fully here. 



