346 HISTORY OF 



try. In Casewood, about two miles from Tun- 

 bridge, as Mr Pennant assures us, some wood- 

 cocks are seen to breed annually. The young have 

 been shot there in the beginning of August, and 

 were as healthy and vigorous as they were with 

 us in winter, though not so well tasted. On the 

 Alps and other high mountains, says Willoughby, 

 the woodcock continues all summer. I myself 

 have flushed them on the top of Mount Jura in 

 June and July. The eggs are long, of a pale 

 red colour, and stained with deeper spots and 

 clouds. The nests of the curlew and the snipe 

 are frequently found ; and some of these, per- 

 haps, never entirely leave this island. 



It is thus that the same habits are, in some 

 measure, common to all ; but in nestling and 

 bringing up their young, one method takes place 

 universally. As they all run and feed upon the 

 ground, so they are all found to nestle there. 

 The number of eggs generally to be seen in 

 every nest, is from two to four; never under, 

 and very seldom exceeding. The nest is made 

 without any art ; but the eggs are either laid in 

 some little depression of the earth, or on a few 

 bents and long grass, that scarcely preserve them 

 from the moisture below. Yet such is the heat 

 of the body of these birds, that their time of 

 incubation is shorter than with any others of 

 the same size. The magpie, for instance, 

 takes twenty-one days to hatch its young; the 

 lapwing takes but fourteen. Whether the ani- 

 mal oil, with which these birds abound, gives 



