33 8 The Water-fowl Family 



EUROPEAN WOODCOCK 

 (Scolopax rusticold) 



Male and female in breeding plumage — Upper parts, rufous mottled 

 with gray, buff, and black ; forehead, fore part of crown, chin, 

 neck, and lower parts, buff-gray ; crown and nape, crossed by 

 four black patches separated by buffy lines ; black line from bill 

 to eye and another across ear-coverts ; chin and throat, spotted 

 with dusky, rest of lower parts barred with the same ; wing- 

 coverts and tertials, rufous, barred with grayish brown, and the 

 latter blotched with black and tipped with light gray ; primaries 

 and secondaries, brown, barred on outer web and notched on 

 inner web with gray and rufous ; rump and upper tail-coverts, 

 rufous, faintly barred with gray and buffy ; tail, black, feathers 

 notched with rufous on outer webs and tipped with gray above, 

 silvery white below ; bill, dusky brown, livid at base of mandible ; 

 feet and legs, grayish ; iris, brown. 



Winter plumage of adults — The same. 



Young — Similar but darker; ashy spots on upper parts largely 

 replaced by buff; rump and upper tail-coverts more conspicu- 

 ously barred ; outer webs of tail feathers less barred with rufous, 

 gray tips margined proximally with buff. 



Downy young — Rusty ochraceous; upper parts marked with spots 

 of deep rusty, and a band of same on jugulum ; blackish stripe 

 from bill to eye. 



Measurements — Length, 14 inches; wing, 7.35 inches; tail, 3.25 

 inches; culmen, 3 inches ; tarsus, 1.50 inches. 



Eggs — Four ; rounded oval ; buff, spotted with pale reddish brown 

 and gray; measure 1.75 by 1.35 inches. 



Habitat — Breeds in Great Britain, Scandinavia, Russia, Mongolia, 

 and Siberia, north to the Arctic circle ; in the Japanese moun- 

 tains, Himalayas, Caucasus, Carpathians, and Alps, and in the 

 Azores, Canary, and Madeira islands. Winters in Great 

 Britain, southern Europe, northern Africa, east to India, China, 

 and Formosa. Occurs in the Faroe Islands, and in North 

 America has been reported from Newfoundland, Quebec, Rhode 

 Island (?), New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. 



