8 WOODCOCK. 



nearly equal patches by two bars of yellowish brown; chin, 

 pale yellowish brown nearly white. Throat and breast, pale 

 brown, barred across with dark brown, both shades lighter in 

 old birds; on its upper part are two patches of rufous, which 

 differ in depth of colour in different birds; back, mottled with 

 three shades of brown. 



The wings expand to the width of two feet two inches; 

 greater and lesser wing coverts, reddish brown, with open oval 

 rings of dark brown; primaries, blackish brown, with triangular- 

 shaped spots of pale reddish brown along the margin of each 

 web; at the root of the first quill is a small narrow and 

 pointed feather, found serviceable by painters as a pencil ; the 

 first quill feather is marked with alternate dark and light 

 spots of a somewhat triangular shape, but they are said to 

 wear out with age from the base to the end of the feathers; 

 the second is the longest; secondaries and tertiaries, blackish 

 brown, but with the light-coloured marks more elongated, 

 and reaching across to the shaft; underneath, the quill feathers 

 are dark slate grey, the triangular marks yellowish grey; 

 greater and lesser under wing coverts, pale brown barred with 

 dark brown. The tail, of twelve feathers, is black, indented 

 across with reddish spots on the edges, and tipped with dark 

 grey; underneath, it is nearly black tipped with white; upper 

 tail coverts, chesnut brown tipped with grey, and barred 

 across with dark brown; under tail coverts, yellowish white, 

 with black triangular-shaped central spots. The legs, which 

 are short, and feathered to the knees, are, as the toes, dark 

 brownish grey; claws, black. 



The female exceeds the female in size; weight, ordinarily 

 from thirteen to fifteen ounces: one is recorded in a letter 

 from Lady Peyton to Miss Hoste, as communicated by Lord 

 Braybrooke to Mr. Yarrell, which was of the extraordinary 

 weight of twenty-seven ounces; it was shot at Narborough, 

 in Norfolk, about 1775 or 1776. Some years previously one 

 had been killed at Hadleigh, in Suffolk, which weighed 

 twenty-four ounces. Another was shot at Audley End, the 

 seat of Lord Braybrooke, which weighed sixteen ounces. In 

 Pennant's 'British Zoology,' one is mentioned as killed at 

 Holy well, of the weight of twenty ounces; and in Daniels' 

 'Rural Sports,' one of seventeen ounces. The head on the 

 sides about the streak from the bill to the eye, is darker 

 than in the male, and the small triangular-shaped specks are 

 less defined; the back has less of the pale brown and grey. 



