HISTORY OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



WOODCOCK. 



Scolopax rusticola, PENNANT. MONTAGU. 



ScolopaxA. Woodcock. Rusticola. EusThQ country. 



Colo To inhabit. 



IN Europe, the Woodcock retires into the wild districts of 

 Norway, Lapland, and Sweden to build, also frequents Finland, 

 Russia, and Silesia; in Switzerland, Germany, and France, ifc 

 is less common; in Italy it is plentiful in winter: it occurs 

 throughout the whole of the more temperate parts of the 

 continent in greater or less numbers. In Asia it appertains 

 to Persia, India, and Japan. In Africa to Barbary and -other 

 parts, and in Madeira is a perennial resident. 



In this country these birds were formerly much more 

 abundant than they are now, and numbers used to be taken 

 in springes, nets, and traps. The destruction of their eggs 

 in Sweden, where they, as likewise the birds themselves, are 

 in much request, may perhaps account for this> as well as 

 possibly for the circumstance of their building so much more 

 frequently with us than formerly, as presently adverted to, 

 though their actual numbers are diminished. 



In Orkney and Shetland they occur on their way north and 

 south. 



The "Woodcock arrives early in the neighbourhood of 

 Brighton, at first in flocks of from ten to thirty, and after- 

 wards in larger numbers, and are for a short time found, as 

 I am informed by Mr. Thomas Thorncroft, of that place, in 



VOL. VI. B 



