625 



n 



Woodcock carrying her young; but perhaps one of the best accounts I have seen is that by 

 Mr. Hancock, who writes (B. of Northumb. and Durh. p. 103) as follows : — " Mr. Charles 

 St. John, who believed that the young, when so carried, were held in the claws, states in his 

 ' Field Notes and Tour in Sutherland,' p. 164, that 'many people doubt the fact of the Wood- 

 cock carrying her young, from the wood to the swamp, in her feet ; and certainly the claws of a 

 Woodcock appear to be little adapted to grasping and carrying a heavy substance ; yet such is 

 most undoubtedly the case. Regularly as the evening comes on, many Woodcocks carry their 

 young ones down to the soft feeding-ground, and bring them back again to the shelter of the 

 woods before daylight, where they remain during the whole day. I. myself never happened to 

 see the Woodcock in the act of returning • but I have often seen them going down to the swamps 

 in the evening, carrying their young with them. Indeed it is most evident that they must in 

 most instances transport the newly-hatched birds in this manner, as their nests are generally 

 placed in dry heathery woods, where the young would inevitably perish unless the old ones 

 managed to carry them to some more favourable ground.' In 1849 I accompanied Mr. St. John 

 to Sutherlandshire, on an ornithological tour, and had the good fortune to observe the Wood- 

 cock perform this feat. As we were rambling in the neighbourhood of Dunrobin, where it nests 

 regularly, we raised the bird, and at once saw the young suspended beneath the body of the 

 parent. It was close to us when it rose, so that we had an excellent view of both the young and 

 old bird. 'Now,' said Mr. St. John, 'are you not convinced]' 'Yes,' I replied, 'that the young 

 is carried, but not in the claws, which I have said, and still believe, are too feeble for the 

 purpose.' I picked up one of the brood; it was about the size of a Snipe; when I grasped it, 

 it made a peculiar squeaking noise. In the course of half an hour we returned to the spot and 

 again witnessed the old bird carry off another of its chicks, and now became quite satisfied of 

 the modus operandi ; the young bird was pressed close up to the breast of the parent, as indeed 

 was obvious in the first instance. Hence the inference of us both, that the young was held 

 between the legs and not the claws." 



Mr. John J. Dalgleish, to whom I am indebted for the following notes on the habits of the 

 Woodcock in Scotland, also gives particulars, from personal observation, of this habit of the 

 Woodcock. He writes to me as follows: — "My knowledge of the habits of the Woodcock 

 extends principally to the central district of Scotland north of the Firth of Forth and to the 

 western coast of Ai'gyllshire. In the former, through the counties of Stirling, Clackmannan, 

 south of Perthshire, Kinross, and Fife it is generally distributed, but nowhere in great numbers, 

 and almost always in cover, although I once killed one in a turnip-field. On my own property, 

 near Culross, and within two miles of the upper reach of the Firth of Forth, and which contains 

 about 500 acres of cover, there may be from ten to thirty killed annually, according to the 

 season. Their numbers are of course greatly augmented in the winter, large numbers of immi- 

 grants being added to those which breed (as after mentioned) : indeed I am not sure whether all 

 of those we have in winter are immigrants, and that those which breed with us move further 

 south in pursuance of their migratory instinct ; but this is a point very difficult to discover. In 

 the district I now allude to, their numbers are much diminished on the appearance of severe 

 frosty weather, when they appear to go to the coast, where they find the feeding-grounds more 

 open ; if, however, the frost be slight, they remain. 



