SCOLOPAX. 503 



Rusticola europsea, Lesson, Traite d'Orn. p. 555 (1831). 

 Scolopax indiousj Hodgson, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. ii. pt. 1, p. 490 (1837). 

 Scolopax communis^ Selby, Cat. Gen. ^ Subgen. Aves, p. 43 (1840) . 

 Eusticola sylvestris, Macgillivray, Man. Brit. B. ii. p. 105 (1842). 

 Scolopax scoparia, Bonap. Compt. Rend, xliii. p. 579 (1856). 



Plates.— Daub. PL Enl. no. 885 ; Gould, Birds Gt. Brit. iv. pi. 77 ; Dresser, Birds of Europe, Literature. 



vii. pi. 540. 

 Habits. — Seebohm, Britisb Birds, iii. p. 231. 

 Eggs. — Seebohm, British Birds, pi. 28. figs. 2, 5. 



The Woodcock may be distinguished from all the Snipes by the silvery white tips of Speciiio 

 the under surface of its tail-feathers ; and from the three other Woodcocks by the combi- ^ °■"'^^^^^■ 

 nation of the two characters, all the feathers of the breast barred, primaries with rudimentary 

 bars on the margins of both webs. The former character distinguishes it from 8. minor and 

 -5'. rochusseni, and the latter from 8. saturata as well as from 8. minor. 



The Woodcock breeds somewhat sparingly and locally throughout the British Islands, Geographi- 

 including Shetland and some of the inner islands, and may constantly be met with during ^. '^^^*"""' 

 winter; but its numbers are largely increased in autumn and spring by birds passing 

 through on migration. At these seasons it is common on the Orkneys and the Outer 

 Hebrides, though, owing to the absence of suitable cover, it does not breed in any of these 

 islands. 



It is a semi-arctic bird, ranging from the Atlantic to the Pacific, In Scandinavia it 

 breeds up to lat. 67°, in West Russia to 65°, but in East Russia and Siberia not much 

 beyond 60°. Its southern breeding-range extends to the Azores, the Canaries and Madeira, 

 to the Alps, the Carpathians and the Caucasus, to the Himalayas (where it breeds at an 

 elevation of ten thousand feet), and to Mongoha and the mountains of Japan. It winters 

 in the basin of the Mediterranean, in Persia, India, Burma, and China, occasionally 

 wandering as far south as Ceylon. It has not occurred in Iceland or Greenland, and only 

 once on the Faroes; but accidental stragglers, no doubt driven westward by storms, 

 principally from the Azores, have been met with on the American continent in Newfound- 

 land, New Jersey, and Virginia. 



It is very distinct from its four nearest allies, and it is quite impossible to guess to 

 which of them it bears the closest relationship. It is essentially a forest-bird, and is to a 

 great extent nocturnal in its habits. 



