GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 297 



attenuated first three primaries, and nearly uniform buff under- 

 parts. .S. rochussent, an inhabitant of the Moluccas, distinguished 

 by its unbarred breast and primaries marked with rudimentary 

 bars ; and 6'. saturata, an inhabitant, so far as is known, of 

 Java and New Guinea, much smaller than the Common Wood- 

 cock, and with the primaries barred on the outer webs only. 

 These are all the true Woodcocks at present known to science. 



Time during which the Woodcock may be taken. — 



August ist to March ist (to March 15th in Essex). 



Habits. — Speaking from a naturalist's point of view, and 

 with a full knowledge of the habits of birds during the moulting 

 season, I should say emphatically that the AVoodcocks breeding 

 in the British Islands are stationary, that is, in the sense of not 

 crossing the seas. I am glad to say that this opinion is confirmed 

 by several intelligent gamekeepers, on whose grounds the bird 

 breeds in fair numbers every season. After the breeding season 

 is over, the AVoodcock is a most skulking bird until its moult is 

 completed ; in this respect it resembles the Snipe, Not only so, 

 but many of these resident Woodcocks are actually breeding 

 even before the return migration of this species in spring, when 

 the birds that breed further north pass our islands on their way 

 thither. The migrations of the Woodcock are both marked and 

 regular. The bird may be traced leaving its winter quarters in 

 the Mediterranean basin at Gibraltar in the west during the 

 latter half of February, and in Asia Minor in the east during the 

 former half of March. We find it in the British Islands on its 

 way north in March, and it reaches Scandinavia by the end of 

 that month or early in April. The return migration in autumn, 

 which is much more pronounced and noticeable than the vernal 

 one, begins early in October, and continues with varying intensity 

 through the month into the first half of November. Asia Minor 

 is reached towards the end of October, but in the west of 

 the Mediterranean the birds are about a fortnight later. The 

 Woodcock almost invariably migrates by night, up wind, and at 

 a considerable elevation. This species is seldom or never caught 

 in the flight nets, because it continues its lofty course until over 

 dry land, and then drops almost perpendicularly into the cover 

 below. I have met with great numbers of tired-out Woodcocks 



