AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 53 



plumage and much larger in size. The woodcock 

 killed in England generally measure about 14J inches 

 in length, and weigh from 14 to 17 ozs., although one 

 is reported to have been killed at Narborough, of the 

 enormous weight of 27 ozs. I do not here give all the 

 minutiae of the English bird, for it is not of it that 

 I wish to speak, but only sufficiently to show that 

 there is a marked difference between it and its name- 

 sake of the American continent, whose peculiarities I 

 will here, so far as memory serves me, attempt to 

 describe, for the benefit of the young hunter and the 

 sportsman who have the misfortune to reside in a 

 neighbourhood that may seldom be visited by this 

 gamest of birds. Length, from point of bill to end 

 of tail, 11 to 12 inches ; across the wings, 9J inches ; 

 weight from 6 to 7 ozs. The females generally ex- 

 ceed these measurements by about 1-10. In shape they 

 much resemble the Wilson snipe (Scolopax Wilsoni], 

 only they are more round and compact, the eye larger 

 and more prominent, and wings shorter but fuller. In 

 colour the bill is a yellowish brown ; legs and feet of a 

 pinkish flesh colour ; claws dark olive or brown ; iris, 

 brown ; forehead, dirty yellow, with two black bars 

 across the back of the head, and two narrow ones in front 

 on the neck, a finely-pencilled dark line running the 

 whole length of the head, the eye dividing it into two 



