WOODCOCK. 9 



sen ; it is not far distant from the river. The woods are 

 kept quiet, and several pheasants 1 nests were hatched in 

 their close vicinity. It is prohable that the parent birds 

 sought this spot for the purpose of breeding, as they must 

 have arrived in the spring from other localities ; for those 

 who shot in the covers till February declare that they 

 did not know of a single Woodcock being then left in 

 them, and had there been two or three, the keeper must 

 have been aware of it. Zool. Pro. 



Mr. W. C. Williamson, Curator to the Natural History 

 Society, Manchester, made the following communication 

 to Mr. Loudon for his Magazine in June 1836. Ornitho- 

 logists have for some time been convinced of the fact that 

 the Woodcock occasionally breeds in England ; but the in- 

 stances have been rare, and, generally, a single pair of 

 birds, without others in the neighbourhood to evince that 

 the stay was entirely a voluntary one. This spring, how- 

 ever, the nests of three pairs were found in one wood, be- 

 longing to Francis Hurt, Esq. of Alderwasley, near Derby. 

 The nests when discovered all contained eggs, the old 

 birds being then sitting. I wrote to Mr. Hurt on the 

 29th of April, requesting him to procure for our Society a 

 nest with eggs ; and two or three days after, he kindly 

 sent me the nest, with broken shells of four eggs, which, 

 as well as those of other nests, had been hatched even at 

 that early period of the year. Two of the young broods, 

 with the old birds leading them about, have been seen by 

 the keepers of that gentleman, who remarks in his letter, 

 that, on going to the nest, the old bird did not rise until 

 he had approached within the distance of a yard. They 

 were all in dry, warm, situations, amongst dead grass 

 and leaves, without any attempt at concealment. The 

 nest sent was wholly composed of dead leaves, chiefly 



