3H 



HISTOUY OF 



All these birds possess many marks in common ; though some 

 have peculiarities that deserve regard. All these birds are bare 

 of feathers above the knee, or above the heel, as some naturalists 

 choose to express it. In fact, that part which I call the knee, 



to bend a little downwards about three fingers from the head. Tlie middle 

 parts of the feathers on the head, neck, and back, are black ; the borders or 

 outsides ash-coloured, with an intermixture of red ; and those between the 

 wings and back are of a most beautiful glossy blue, and shine like silk. The 

 vent and belly are white. The feet are divided, but joined by a little mem. 

 brane at the root. The tongue is very short, considering the length of the 

 bill, and bears some resemblance to an arrow. The female is somewhat 

 larger than the male, which is commonly called the jack-curlew ; and the 

 spots with which her body is covered almost over, is more inclining to a 

 red. 



The Woodcock. — During the summer time the woodcock is an inhabitant 

 of Norway, Sweden, Lapland, and other northern countries, where it 

 breeds. As soon, however, as the frosts commence, it retires southward to 

 milder climates. These birds arrive in Great Britain in flocks ; some of 

 them in October, but not in great numbers till November and December. 

 They generally take advantage of the night, being seldom seen to come be- 

 fore sun-set 



The time of their arrival depends considerably on the prevailing winds ; 

 for adverse gales always detain them, they not being able to struggle with 

 the boisterous squalls of the Northern Ocean. After their arrival in bad 

 weather, they have often been seen so much exhausted as to allow themselves 

 to be taken by the hand, when they alighted near the coast. They live on 

 u'orins and insects, which they search for with their long bills in soft ground 

 and moist woods, feeding and flying principally in the night. They go out 

 in the evening ; and generally return in the same direction, through the 

 same glades, to their day-retreat The greater part of them leave tliis 

 country about the latter end of February, or the beginning of March, al- 

 ways pairing before they set out. They retire to the coast, and, if the wind 

 be fair, set out immediately ; but if contrary, they are often detained in the 

 neighbouring woods and tliickets for some time. In this crisis the sports 

 men are all on the alert, and the whole surrounding country echoes to the 

 iischarge of guns ; seventeen brace have been killed by one person in a day. 

 But if they are detained long on the dry heaths, they become so lean as to 

 oe scarcely eatable. 'I'he instant a fair wind springs up, they seize the op- 

 portunity ; and where the sportsman has seen hundreds in one day, he will 

 not find even a single bird the next. 



Very few of them breed in England ; and perhaps with respect to those 

 that do, it may be owing to theii- having been wouiided by the sportsman in 

 the winter, so as to be disabled from taking their long jouniey in the spring. 

 They build their nests on the ground, generally at the root of some tree, 

 and lay four or five eggs about the size of those of a pigeon, of a rusty col- 

 our, and marked with brown spots. They are remarkably tame during in- 

 cubation. A person who discovered a woodcock on its nest, often stood 

 over, and even stroked it ; notwithstanding it hatched the young ones, and 

 iu due time, disappeared with them. 



