334 



SCOLOPACID^. 



brown ; neck in front, breast, and all the under surface of 

 the body, wood-brown, transversely barred with dark brown, 

 both shades of brown on the under surface becoming lighter 

 in old birds ; under wing-coverts pale brown, barred with 

 dark brown ; under surface of the quill-feathers dry- slate 

 grey, the triangular markings yellowish-grey ; under surface 

 of the tail-feathers nearly black, tipped with delicate snow- 

 white ; legs and toes varying from livid brown to pale yellow ; 

 claws black. 



The whole length is about fourteen inches and a half. 

 From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, eight inches 

 and a half ; the first quill-feather the longest. 



Varieties in plumage are not uncommon, sometimes with 

 a portion of white, or entirely of a dull yellowish-white, or 

 buff colour. In one example every feather of this bird was 

 of a pure and delicate untinted white, the bill and legs being 

 very pale wood-brown. Mr. J. Whitaker, of Kain worth 

 Lodge, Mansfield, possesses some remarkable varieties : one, 

 of especial beauty, is white, boldly spotted and marked with 

 black patches on the centres of the feathers of the mantle, 

 head, and tail, and with faint dark hair-lines down the 

 secondaries and primaries. It was shot near Londonderry 

 in 1880. 



In the year 1833, a Woodcock with white feathers in the 

 wings was observed in a cover on the manor of Monkleigh, 

 near Torrington, in the county of Devon. The same bird, 

 or one of exactly similar plumage, reappeared in the same 

 place during the four succeeding seasons, in which period it 

 was so repeatedly shot at by different persons without effect, 

 that it at last acquired among the country people the name 

 of " the witch." In the year 1837, however, it was killed 

 on the property of the Rev. J. T. Pine Coffin, of Portledge, 

 who had the specimen preserved. 



In reference to the subject forming the vignette, it may be 

 explained that on the 29th of November, 1829, the late Sir 

 Francis Chantrey, when shooting at Holkham, killed two 

 Woodcocks at one shot. To record this event, Sir Francis 

 Chantrey sculptured two Woodcocks on a marble tablet, 



