Birds. 929 



every stage of growth, from the egg to the full-fledged bird, all ob- 

 tained in the Isle of Wight. R. Loe also has known the woodcock 

 to breed in the island several times. It would almost seem that this 

 bird remains to breed in this country more frequently than it used to 

 do. One of the keepers in the New Forest told me that last spring 

 (1844) he knew of four nests. 



1 cannot satisfy myself that there are not two distinct species of 

 this bird that visit this country. All sportsmen, as well as writers on 

 Natural History, — and indeed not less the eaters than the killers and 

 writers about this delicious bird, must have observed the great differ- 

 ence of size in individuals; but many old sportsmen go further. Cap- 

 tain Lacey, in his ' Modern Shooter,' writes, " I never met with more 

 than two kinds of woodcocks ; the one, the common muffed, or muf- 

 fled cock, of which the female is generally the largest; and the other, 

 a much smaller bird, of darker plumage, and of later arrival, generally 

 called the little black cock." Now certainly this experienced sports- 

 man is far from singular in his opinion, that there are " two kinds of 

 woodcocks." The names he has given his supposed species were fa- 

 miliar to me twenty years ago, in Monmouthshire; and Captain Lacy 

 only expresses, in the above extract, what was, I believe, the received 

 opinion throughout the county, with this difference, that the little 

 black cock was thought to come earlier instead of later than the muff- 

 ed cock. Size and shade of colour are, I admit, poor criteria for dis- 

 tinguishing species; but I remember other and better — I do not say 

 positively good — distinctions. The feathers of the neck of the larger 

 bird were proportionally longer and larger, giving a fulness of appear- 

 ance to that part ; and hence the name " muffed " or " muffled : " 

 while the bill and the tarsus of the smaller bird were not only rela- 

 tively but absolutely the longer. If I am correct on this point, — I 

 am by no means certain that I am, for I am giving a general impres- 

 sion only, which has remained on my mind for twenty years unre- 

 freshed, — I think the specific distinctness of the two birds ought to be 

 admitted, especially if there be taken into consideration certain differ- 

 ences of flight, which I think will be found to exist. Certainly the 

 flight of the larger birds varies on different days ; and, even on the 

 same day, the same individual will fly much more rapidly at one time 

 than at another. I have seen the muffed cock go off with a rapidity 

 hardly exceeded by the swoop of the falcon ; at least, such was the 

 impression left on my mind by the flight of two birds I saw flushed 

 last winter : and the flight in the evening, when the bird was on its 

 way to the feeding-ground, has always, when I have witnessed it, been 



