THE BOOK OF MIGRATORY BIRDS IQ9 



which a chick had quite recently been hatched. However, 

 this mother-bird faced the camera with sufficient equa- 

 nimity, and subsequently allowed Harry Lavender, the 

 gamekeeper, to stroke her back. He went as far as to say 

 that he would lift her off the ground and pretend to put her 

 in his pocket; but this proposed outrage on the bird's con- 

 fidence he failed to commit. She fled, but was sharply 

 back again, to be welcomed by two nidulants and a half, 

 which within a couple of hours became a full family com- 

 plement of four, and several passable photos were secured. 



Another maternal woodcock declined this outside 

 familiarity. On being disturbed by two strangers she 

 snatched up the chick nearest to her, and bore it off to a 

 distance right across the river in the valley, said our 

 keeper. This chick's two fellow-mates simultaneously 

 disappeared into cover, and did not emerge therefrom until 

 called together by their parent, who, to our great satis- 

 faction, brought back the other little one. I do not wish 

 to suggest that behaviour of the kind is characteristic of 

 the woodcock, which has surely never been seen carrying 

 off a chick dangling at the end of her long bill. Lavender, 

 the gamekeeper mentioned, says he has seen more than 

 one youngster tucked privily away between the mother- 

 bird's wonderfully fine thighs, and in such fashion de- 

 ported to moist prob ing-grounds at a distance. 



Since home-breeding woodcock are now more numerous, 

 one w : ould naturally expect to hear of more mature birds 

 being bagged during the autumn and winter. I do not 

 thing it is so, because, unfortunately, a very great number 

 of home-reared birds go away. The Duke of North- 

 umberland, at Alnwick, has been very successful with the 

 catching and marking of young birds, whose legs carry a 

 small ring, marked "N," along with the year. Several 

 have been shot at different points of the compass, but it has 

 been shown that the majority proceeded north towards the 

 end of summer. 



Some countrymen will inform you that the woodcock 

 is double-brooded, although they are not able to prove it. 



