140 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



year ; these she describes as being in change of 

 plumage but having no ruff yet ; probably the 

 change of colour in the feathers was beginning 

 before the long feathers of the ruff began to grow ; 

 and this agrees with what I have seen of the Kuff 

 in confinement ; the change of colour in the feathers 

 of the body begins before the ruff makes its 

 appearance. 



Professor Ansted includes the Kuff in his list, 

 and only marks it as occurring in Guernsey. There 

 is no specimen in the Museum at present. 



118. WOODCOCK. Scolopax rusticola, Linnaeus. 

 French, " Becasse ordinaire." The Woodcock is a 

 regular and tolerably common autumnal visitant to 

 all the Islands, arriving and departing about the 

 same time as in England, none, however, re- 

 maining to breed, as is so frequently the case with 

 us. There might be some good cock shooting in 

 the Islands if the Woodcocks were the least pre- 

 served, but as soon as one is heard of every 

 person in the Island who can beg, borrow, or steal 

 a gun and some powder and shot is out long before 

 daylight, waiting for the first shot at the unfor- 

 tunate Woodcock as soon as there should be 

 sufficient daylight. In fact, such a scramble is 

 therefor a chance at a Woodcock that a friend of mine 

 told me he got up long before daylight one morning 



