WADING BIRDS. 195 



various parts of the country have been noted, especially 

 of late years, more attention having been paid to the 

 subject. In our own forest district, however, they have 

 become constant denizens throughout the year, breeding 

 regularly in our woods in great numbers. I have no 

 doubt that these are regularly augmented and diminished 

 by a partial migration from and to the Continent in 

 October and March, but still a very large number take 

 up their permanent residence with us, and may be con- 

 stantly met with during the summer. Ollerton Corner, 

 and Blyth Corner Woods abound with them to such an 

 extent that, while walking along the side of the former 

 wood on a summer's evening for the distance of a mile, 

 I have counted at least from twenty to thirty woodcocks 

 flying from the wood to the forest, and this I could do 

 any evening during twilight. In these woods they breed 

 abundantly, their nests being loosely formed of dry 

 leaves and fern, with sometimes a little grass, and placed 

 in a warm sheltered situation. The eggs are always 

 four in number, the young being hatched about the last 

 week in April or the first in May, and being able to run 

 as soon as they leave the egg. 



The female shows the greatest affection for her pro- 

 geny when very young, hissing in a menacing manner 

 on the approach of an enemy, and when compelled to 

 retreat taking one under her wing, and sometimes one 

 under each wing, and conveying them away to a place 

 of safety. 



In 1846 a woodman was engaged with some others in 

 clearing the underwood from a plantation in Thoresby 

 Park. He had just cut down a small thornbush with 

 his billhook, when directly it fell, a woodcock started 

 up from the fern at its foot, where she had been brooding 



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