Breeding of Woodcocks in Selkirkshire. 121 



of our wild woods and copses : any surmise, at that time, of 

 its breeding in the country would have been held as visionary 

 and ridiculous; but, for some years past, the woodcock is 

 as well known annually to bring out her young as the curlew 

 or green plover. In various parts of Ross-shire, its nests are 

 frequent. It hatches early, often in the latter end of March, 

 but generally by the first week of April. On the 10th of 

 April, 1835, the gamekeeper at Brahan Castle, a seat of the 

 Hon. Mrs. Stewart Mackenzie, offered to show the writer of 

 this two nests upon which the birds (woodcocks) were still 

 sitting. We found one of these by the side of a road used 

 for driving timber, but which was not much frequented. It 

 was in withered grass, and partially screened by spray and 

 brambles. Although the gamekeeper pointed to the place, 

 and we were within a few feet of the bird, yet, like an unprac- 

 tised person endeavouring to see a hare in her form, it was 

 sometime before our eyes were able to find her. To me the 

 sight was new, greatly interesting, and beautiful ; and the 

 woodcock in her nest would have made a delightful study 

 for Bewick, or a theme for Wordsworth.* She sat with her 

 head thrown as if far back between her wings, and the end of 

 her long bill a very little over her mottled breast. The dark 

 brown streaks of her wing coverts, and the markings on her 

 wings and her head, were so delicate, and, withal, so clear and 

 distinct, as to be, on the whole, " beautiful exceedingly." 



We left her there, after looking at her attentively, and 

 greatly delighted, for several minutes ; and, about 250 paces 

 off, we were shown another, amongst pruned branches at the 

 root of a large larch tree I was eager to see the nest and 

 eggs of this; and the gamekeeper allowed his terrier to put 

 her off. She fluttered away in a zig-zag direction, hanging 

 her head and her legs as if severely wounded, on purpose to 

 decoy us from her nest, as many other birds do. We found 

 there had been five eggs of the colour of those of the red 

 grouse. Two of the birds were free of the shell; but one of 

 these we thought was dead, and the other tried to run away. 

 We caught it, and put it in the nest again, which it again 

 left ; and in the mean time, the other, that we thought was 

 dead, got up, and tried to run off* likewise. We quitted the 

 nest as quickly as we could, afraid that the dam, who had 

 once or twice appeared on the wing among the underwood, 

 might, between her young that had run from their eggs, and 

 those that still were confined there, have more to do in her 



* See his Sonnet to a Wild Duck's Nest. The gamekeeper told us that, 

 in March, 1834, he found a woodcock's nest, the young of which ran off* 

 on the 29th of that month. 



