188 AMERICAN GAME. 



a yellowish white at the vent, while its European 

 congener has all the lower parts of a dull cream color, 

 barred with faint dusky waved lines, like the breast 

 feathers of, some of the falcons. 



It has generally been believed that the large cock 

 of the Eastern continent is never found in America ; and 

 all analogy would go to strengthen that belief, for neither 

 of the birds range on their respective continents very far 

 to the northward, whereas it is those species only which 

 extend into the Arctic regions, and by no means all of 

 them, that are common to the two hemispheres. Some 

 circumstances have, however, come recently to my know- 

 ledge which lead me to doubt whether the large woodcock 

 of the Eastern hemisphere does not occasionally find its 

 way to this continent, although it is difficult to conceive 

 how it should do so, since it must necessarily wing 1 its 

 way across the whole width of the Atlantic, from the 

 shores of Ireland or the Azores, which are, so far as is 

 ascertained, its extreme western limit. 



A very good English sportsman resident in Philadel- 

 phia, who is perfectly familiar with both the species and 

 their distinctions, assures me that during the past winter 

 a friend brought for his inspection an undoubted English 

 woodcock, which he had purchased in the market ; it 

 weighed twelve ounces, measured twenty-five inches 

 from wing to wing, and had the cream-colored barred 

 breast which I have described. The keeper of the stall 

 at which this bird was purchased did not know where it 



