CH. XXXr. WOODCOCKS — SNIPES. 165 



must in most instances transport the newly-hatched 

 birds in this manner, as their nests are gene- 

 rally placed in dry heathery woods, where the young 

 would inevitably perish unless the old ones managed 

 to carry them to some more favourable feeding- 

 ground. Both young woodcocks and snipes are 

 peculiarly helpless birds, as indeed are all the 

 waders, until their bills have hardened, and they 

 have acquired some strength of wing and leg. Un- 

 like the young of partridges and some other birds 

 who run actively as soon as hatched, and are 

 able to fly well in a very short time, woodcocks, 

 snipes, and waders while young are very help- 

 less, moving about with a most uncertain and tot- 

 tering gait, and unable to take wing until they are 

 full grown. Their growth is, however, extremely 

 rapid. 



Snipes, redshanks, and several other birds of this 

 genus are hatched and brought up on the same kind 

 of ground on which they feed ; but woodcocks, in 

 this country at least, are generally hatched far from 

 the marshes, and therefore the old birds must, of 

 necessity, carry their helpless young to these places, 

 or leave them to starve in the dry heather : nor is 

 the food of the woodcock of such a nature that it 

 could be taken to the young from the swamps in 

 any sufficient quantity. Neither could the old birds 



