OF SELBOENE. 101 



p. 211, has some interesting remarks on this subject from his own obser- 

 vation. He says: " That the old birds carried their young I had long 

 since ascertained, having often seen them in the months of April and 

 May in the act of doing so, as they flew, towards nightfall, from the 

 woods down to the swamps in the low grounds. From close observa- 

 tion, however, I found out that the old woodcock carries her young even 

 when larger than a snipe, not in her claws, which seem quite inca- 

 pable of holding up any weight, but by clasping the little bird tightly 

 between her thighs, and so holding it tight towards her own body. In 

 the summer and spring evenings the woodcocks may be seen so employed 

 passing to and fro, and uttering a gentle cry on their way from the 

 woods to the marshes. They not only carry their young to feed, but 

 also, if the brood is suddenly come upon in the daytime, the old bird lifts 

 up one of her young, flies with it fifty or sixty yards, drops it quietly, 

 and flies silently on. The little bird immediately rnns a few yards, 

 and then squats flat on the ground amongst the dead leaves, or what- 

 ever the ground is covered with. The parent soon returns to the rest 

 of her brood, and if the danger still threatens her, she lifts up and car- 

 ries away another young bird in the same manner. I saw this take 

 place on the 18th of May." This is confirmed by a correspondent who, 

 writing from Rostrevor, Co. Down, in August, 1871, says : " On the 2nd 

 of this month I started a brace of woodcocks close to me. One of them 

 had a young one pressed between its breast and feet; it lighted on the 

 ground again after rising, apparently to get a better grasp of its young 

 one, and then flew off with it. They were near the edge of a wood, in 

 the afternoon and during sunshine." Another correspondent, writing 

 from Rohallion, Birnam, in "The Field" of 26th August, 1871, says: 

 " This spring (1871) I have been witness repeatedly to the ability of 

 the woodcock to carry its young and fly off with them pressed to its 

 body by its legs. This was in May and June." Some additional 

 evidence will be found in Mr. Stevenson's " Birds of Norfolk," vol. ii. 

 p. 292. 



This curious habit has been noticed also in the North American 

 woodcock, as testified by Audubon and others, while more recently the 

 same thing has been observed in England of the common snipe. A 

 well-known sportsman, who has adopted the pseudonym of " Idstone," 

 writing in " The Field" of 30th May, 1874, says that, on the 22nd of 

 the same month, when crossing a marsh on his way to a trout stream, a 

 snipe rose almost at his feet, "and there was attached to it, mostly on 

 its left or near side, a young snipe which it carried, or which clung to it, 

 for about twenty-five yards." He could distinctly see the markings on 

 the young one, and is therefore positive that he was not mistaken. The 

 locality was close to Lawrence's Mill, Morden, Dorsetshire. 



In the same number of " The Field," Mr. John Titterton, of Ely, 

 Cambs., says that a similar thing was observed near Ely also in May of 

 the same year. ED. 



