8 SCOLOPACID.E. 



Earl of Northumberland's household book, begun in 1512, 

 the price of a Woodcock is stated to be one penny or 

 three-halfpence ; and in the Norfolk household book, which 

 begins with 1519, and has been frequently quoted here, 

 the reward for four Woodcocks on the 1 8th of October, 

 four-pence ; and in another instance, paid for three Wood- 

 cocks, sixpence. 



In proof that the Woodcock breeds frequently in the 

 British Islands, particularly in Scotland, two or three of 

 the most interesting of the instances are thus recorded. 

 At the Zoological Society, July 24th 1832, a letter was 

 read, addressed by Sir F. Mackenzie to the Secretary of 

 the Society : it related to the breeding of some Wood- 

 cocks, Scolopax rusticola, Linn., at Conan, on the eastern 

 coast of Ross-shire, the estate of that gentleman. For 

 several years past, two or three of these birds have occa- 

 sionally been seen in the woods, and about five years since 

 a couple were shot just before St. Swithin's day: these 

 were, however, old birds, and from their being covered 

 with fat, it was evident that they had not nested. The 

 keeper, in fact, had never been able to find one of their 

 nests or to see a young bird, until the present season. In 

 two small woods near his house he this year discovered 

 four Woodcocks' nests, one having four, and the others 

 three eggs each, all of which were hatched and ran. The 

 young birds he repeatedly saw before they took wing ; and 

 now five or six couple may every evening, towards dusk, 

 be observed flying about the lodge as they pass to their 

 feeding-grounds. The soil where the nests were found is 

 gravelly and rather dry ; the grass tolerably long, with- 

 out underwood ; and the trees, oak, birch, and larch, not 

 exceeding thirty years' growth. The situation is warm, 

 and not one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the 



