BIRDS 125 



constantly flicks up as it swims as also by the red forehead and beak, the latter 

 tipped with yellow. Otherwise it is a slate-black bird. Its nest is generally 

 among rushes, but it also builds in hedges and trees a strong structure of 

 water plants, lined with grasses, etc. The eggs (six to ten) are light brown, 

 with spots and blotches of brown-red. It feeds on aquatic plants (duckweed, 

 etc.), and insects. Its note is a rather loud " cluck " " Krek, krek-krek " 

 and a metallic " Ts-ack." 



The bird often builds extra nests, used as roosting and resting places. 

 It may often be heard at night, uttering a curious " Kick-kick-kick." 



Whimbrel. A bird very like the Curlew, but much smaller, possessing a 

 long, curved bill. Its plumage is brown and grey, with a light-coloured band 

 down the " forehead " and over the crown. It breeds only in the Orkneys and 

 Shetlands, but is seen as a bird of passage, chiefly in the spring, on our coasts. 

 The four eggs are laid in a scrape ; they are pear-shaped, greenish brown, 

 blotched darker. Its call has been syllabled, " Tetty, yetty, yetty betty, yetty 

 betty, tet " (seven tunes). Its whistle in the winter sounds like " Whee-whee- 

 whee-whee-whee-whee-wit. " 



Widgeon. A " duck " often to be found on estuaries in the winter months, 

 where it feeds on the zostera grass. Its note is a loud " Whee-ou." The species 

 breeds only in Scotland (very exceptionally in the North of England and in 

 Wales). It is ^recognized by its small slate-blue bill tipped with black, and the 

 wing patch, green surrounded by velvet-black (the Teal's wing patch is green 

 surrounded by buff}. The drake has a bright chestnut head, with green 

 " freckles." 



The nest is on the ground, generally near water of grasses and sedges, 

 later mixed with down. The eggs are creamy white. 



Woodcock. It is impossible to write as one would wish of all the remark- 

 able characteristics and habits of this bird, one of the most interesting of our 

 British birds. It is, as its name implies, a wood dweller, as compared with the 

 Snipe, which prefers to frequent marshes. It is resident with us all the year 

 round, and though local in breeding, and to be sought in well-wooded districts, 

 there are few counties where it has not bred. Like all its family, its plumage 

 is so coloured as to afford the most wonderful protection for the bird, by rendering 

 it indistinguishable from the soil and vegetation around it, being a variegated 

 pattern of chestnut, buff, and black. The Woodcock is the largest of the family, 

 and may be distinguished by the broad black bands crossing the back of the head 

 and nape, separated by narrow bands of buff ; as also by the closely barred 

 under parts (it has the long beak and flattened head of all the Snipe family). 

 During the winter large numbers of woodcocks arrive on migration, beginning 

 from October. These fly in flocks, and chiefly by night. The species is, in fact, 

 a " night," or rather a " twilight," bird in its habits, as may be guessed from the 

 size of its eye. By day it remains quietly in its haunt in the wood, but when 

 sunset comes, at practically the same hour each evening, the woodcocks leave 

 the woods and almost always by the same exit one after another, for the hunting 



