WOODCOCK. 235 



developed his imaginative faculties, and he suggested that I should be 

 satisfied with three of the eggs, and that fragments of the shell of the 

 fourth should be scattered close to the nest, to convince the gamekeeper 

 that the eggs had hatched out. This was accordingly done, and the three 

 eggs were brought home to the inn in triumph. On my congratulating 

 him upon the cleverness with which the theft had been made, he replied, 

 " O yes, Sir ; I would not have taken you if I had not known that we could 

 have done it innocent." 



I am indebted to my friend Mr. A. W. Johnson for the following 

 information respecting the breeding of the Woodcock in the neighbourhood 

 of Newcastle-on-Tyne : " The Woodcock breeds every year in the woods 

 of Durham and Northumberland ; in some seasons in considerable numbers. 

 In one wood in the former county, not ten miles from Newcastle, three 

 broods of birds, one of which I saw myself, were seen last May, and two 

 nests of eggs were taken near Newcastle this season. On the 13th of 

 May, 1880, I saw a nest in the same large wood containing four eggs : 

 it was placed at the foot of a small sapling in a dry part of the wood ; and 

 as no brambles or underwood grew over it, the sitting bird could be seen 

 from a considerable distance. She sat so close that we stood for some 

 time within three yards of her ; and it was not until we had approached to 

 within a yard that she darted off, leaving her eggs in their setting of 

 withered oak-leaves fully exposed. The eggs contained half-formed young, 

 which appeared to have been dead some time." 



The eggs of the Woodcock are four in number, and vary in ground- 

 colour from greyish white to brownish buff; the surface-spots vary in 

 size from a pea downwards, and are reddish brown in colour and very 

 irregular in shape ; the underlying spots are quite as large, and are pale 

 greyish brown. They vary in length from 1'8 to 1 '6 inch, and in breadth 

 from 1-4 to l'3inch. The eggs of the Woodcock are not likely to be con- 

 fused with those of any other British bird. Eggs of Bartram's Sandpiper 

 have much smaller and darker spots. 



The Woodcock has frequently been known to remove its young, carrying 

 them between its legs, and pressed to the body by its bill. St. John is of 

 opinion that " many Woodcocks carry their young ones down to the soft 

 feeding-ground, and bring them back again to the shelter of the woods 

 before daylight, where they remain during the whole day." 



The Woodcock is a great favourite amongst sportsmen, not so much 

 from the sport that it yields as from its excellence when brought to table. 

 Woodcocks vary in weight from half a pound to a pound, and some 

 ornithologists have supposed that there is a large and small race of this 

 bird. No satisfactory evidence has yet been produced to show that the 

 difference of size has any connexion with difference of geographical distri- 

 bution; consequently the variations must be regarded as individual and 



