4 WOODCOCK. 



They pair in March previous to withdrawing. They return 

 to the same haunt. 



The nest of the Woodcock, whether it be that more obser- 

 vations have been made, or that more instances have really 

 occurred, has certainly been found in much greater numbers 

 of late years than formerly, when such a thing was thought 

 to be of very rare occurrence. 



A Woodcock was shot at Mr. Marsham's, of Stratton, in 

 Norfolk, about the 4th. of June, 18 i7. In Yorkshire they 

 appear to breed regularly in the woods of Storr's Hall, and 

 Farnle}^ also occasionally near Sheffield, and in Wharncliffe 

 Wood, near Eotherham, 'the place I know it well,' also in 

 Brodsworth Wood, near Doncaster. 



They build every year, not very rarely, on Cannock Chase, 

 and in the preserves of the Marquis of Anglesea, at Beaudesert 

 Park, near Rugeley, Staffordshire, as Thomas Gr. Bonney, Esq., 

 of St. John's College, Cambridge, informs me; three were 

 found there in May, 1843. A nest, with four eggs, was 

 found, as I am written word by Stephen Stone, Esq., on the 

 15th. of April, 1853, in Bagley Wood, near Oxford. Another 

 in Worcestershire; another in Kent, at Seacock's Heath, near 

 Hawkhurst; others near Tonbridge and Groudhurst. 



Instances, more or less numerous, have occurred in- Bed- 

 fordshire, in the woods near Chick sand Priory, Ryton Wood, 

 near Coventr}^, Warwickshire, and Hore Park Wood, and 

 Baxterley, near Nuneaton, in the same county; the preserves 

 of Linley Hall, Shropshire, the seat of E. More, Esq. Scawby, 

 near Brigg, Lincolnshire, in woods belonging to Sir John 

 Nelthorpe, Bart.; Middlemarsh, near Sherborne, Dorsetshire, 

 in a cover belonging to H. Gr. Sturt, Esq. Highclere, Hamp- 

 shire, the seat of Lord Carnarvon; in different parts of 

 Norfolk; in Sussex, near Battle, and at Brede and Pilstye; 

 in Surrey, near Grodalming; in Herefordshire, at Derndale. 

 In Monmouthshire, near Usk; in Hampshire, in Highden 

 Wood, near Horndean, and the Forest of Bere; in Buck- 

 inghamshire, near Uxbridge; also in Hertfordshire. In Not- 

 tinghamshire, in a wood at Shireoaks, near Worksop. 



In Scotland, at Conan, in Rosshire, and at Brahan Castle 

 iii the same county; also in Aberdeenshire, at Castle Forbes; 

 and at Dunkeld, in Perthshire. A pair were found with a 

 nest of three young ones, in the month of April, near Dornoway 

 Castle, the seat of the Earl of Moray; another on the shore 

 of Loch Lomond, near Belloch Castle. 



