THE WOODCOCK. 247 



Breeding of the Woodcock in Ireland. 



All the particulars on this subject which I had learned until 

 January 1839, were then published in the 'Annals of Natural 

 History/ They shall be repeated here, with the omission of the 

 comments upon them, but with the addition of the positive in- 

 formation since acquired. 



Of the woodcock's actual breeding in this country I have not seen 

 any record, and of its presence in summer only the following notice, 

 which appeared first in the ' Belfast Commercial Chronicle,' and sub- 

 sequently in the c Magazine of Natural History,' vol.ii. p. 87. "On 

 the 8th of August, 1828, a fine woodcock was shot in Florida demesne, 

 county of Down ; as it was seen in the course of the spring, it is 

 supposed to have remained in the country since last winter." In the 

 county of Kerry one of these birds was observed in the month of July 

 1832 : — it is thought proper to mention odd birds seen at this season, 

 as they can hardly be presumed in every instance to have been solitary 

 individuals, though their mates may have escaped notice. In the 

 county of Antrim, at the opposite extremity of the island from Kerry, 

 a pair of woodcocks bred at Claggan, the property of Earl O'Neill, in 

 ] 834. The gamekeeper, in the month of April that year, found a nest 

 containing four eggs, all of which were successfully incubated. It was 

 placed in a slight depression of the ground under a hazel, and had a 

 little grass and moss in the bottom for the reception of the eggs : the 

 bird was very tame when on the nest, and permitted the keeper's 

 approach within a yard :— the tameness of the woodcock on its nest is, 

 indeed, mentioned by Pennant and Latham, and from the observation 

 of many persons who have witnessed it, seems to be universal. In 

 that year (1834), also, I saw a young woodcock in the shop of Mr. 

 Glennon, bird-preserver, &c, Dublin, who mentioned that it was shot 

 at Wilton, county of Wexford, and was received by him in a recent 

 state on the 8th or 9th of May : he at the same time stated, that in 

 the preceding summer of 1833, a young bird, shot in company with 

 one of its parents, at the seat of Lord de Vesci, in Queen' s-countt/, was 

 sent to him to be preserved. Capt. T. Walker, of Belmont, Wexford, 

 favoured me with the following particulars, in May 1837. " As to the 

 breeding of woodcocks in this country, I was, in the second week of 



