Vol. xxv.] 38 



suggest very clearly, what I had already suspected, that 

 in the Woodcock, as in the Cuckoo (Cucuhis canorus), the 

 males are far more numerous than the females. It is with 

 a view to testing and obtaining further information on this 

 most interesting point that I have brought this matter 

 before the Members of the Club, and I hope that those who 

 have an opportunity of doing so will endeavour to furnish 

 us with further statistics. The obvious and easy method of 

 proving or disproving this point would be to sacrifice a 

 limited number of broods of young Woodcocks, so as to 

 ascertain the sex of the four individuals in each family 

 party. 



" In districts where the Woodcock breeds numerously a few 

 lots of youug birds might easily be spared for such a purpose. 

 The birds might be caught and forwarded while still young, 

 as the sex, even in downy young, can easily be ascertained by 

 careful dissection." 



A discussion then took place, in which both Mr. C. B. 

 Ticehurst and Mr. J. L. Bonhote stated that they had 

 studied the plumage of the Woodcock, and had found it im- 

 possible to distinguish between the sexes or between old and 

 young birds by any external characters. Mr. Bonhote hoped 

 that people might be willing to sacrifice a few nests of young 

 birds to enable ornithologists to investigate the interesting 

 question which Mr. Ogilvie-Grant had brought before them. 



The Hon. W. Rothschild and Mr. J. G. Millais also 

 took part in the discussion. 



Mr. H. E. Dresser exhibited eggs of the Slender-billed 

 Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris, Vieill.), Swinhoe's Snipe 

 (Gallinago megala, Swinhoe), and the Siberian form of the 

 Common Curlew {Numenius arquatus lineatus, Cuv.), and 

 made the following remarks : — 



" Until comparatively recently nothing was known con- 

 cerning the niditication of Numenius tenuirostris. The late 

 Mr. Seebohm stated (Geogr. Dist. Charadriidae, p. 325) that 

 it is a resident in the basin of the Mediterranean, occa- 

 sionally breeding as far north as 50° N., and that it had not 



