THE WOODCOCK. 255 



the valley to the summit of the dry heathy mountain, whose sides being- 

 clothed with splendid woods, form the chief beauty of Tollymore Park. 



The keeper has reckoned the " flushes " of woodcocks here in 

 winter, and considered a hundred brace to be sprung. At other times, 

 and on different occasions he is sure of having seen, in the course of 

 a day, 150 brace : — in the year 1838, the most he could mention as 

 having ever been observed within one day was eighty brace. He has 

 sprung seven or eight birds together, like a covey of partridges, from 

 beneath a single holly. 



In the young plantations at Donard Lodge (the seat of the Earl of 

 Annesley), adjoining those of Tollymore Park — the two combined 

 occupying a nearly continuous extent of four miles on the mountain 

 side, and in the latter park stretching across both sides of the valley — 

 not less than a dozen nests of woodcocks were observed during each 

 of the last three years. As the nests in these two demesnes have not 

 been sought for, but have been met with merely by chance, many 

 of them, doubtless, were never discovered. Hence we may perhaps 

 fairly add eight to the minimum number — forty-two — observed during 

 the last three years (when they had become so common as fo receive 

 little attention), and consider that they may have contained fifty nests. 

 I have not seen a record of nearly so many being found in any locality 

 in England or Scotland as have been in Tollymore Park alone. 



The description of the habits of these birds about the period of 

 incubation, as given by the gamekeeper here, strongly reminded me of 

 the first good account I had read of the breeding of woodcocks. This 

 referred to Ross-shire, and was communicated by Sir Francis Mac- 

 kenzie to the Zoological Society of London.* The manner of flight is 

 so different after the birds are paired, from that which the sportsman 

 is accustomed to witness at other periods, that I am induced to call 

 attention to the similarity of testimony in the two cases. " Than the 

 flight of the woodcock before and after incubation, Sir F. Mackenzie 

 states, that he knows nothing more rapid, as for an hour or two about 

 dusk he (probably the male, though two have been seen pursuing each 

 other) flies in large circles over the tops of the trees." To a sportsman 

 at least, words could not better convey an idea of the rapidity of its 

 flight than those of my informant, who, an experienced " shot," de- 



* Proceedings of Zool. Society, 1832, Part II. p. 133. 



