3910 Birds. 



woods about here are admirably adapted for the woodcocks to breed in ; and if Sir J. 

 Clarke-Jervoise's rule, of letting them rest after January, were adopted generally in the 

 neighbouring preserves, " a day's woodcock-shooting " in Hampshire might be worth 

 coming some distance for ; at any rate, would not be so problematical a thing as it is 

 at present. The poor woodcock is looked upon too much as a stranger, who is only to 

 be here a few days, and will never come back ; a most erroneous idea, as has been fre- 

 quently proved on the highest authority : the consequence is, that the moment he is 

 flushed there is a hue and cry, and every gun within a hundred yards is let off, " on 

 the chance; because you know one should always fire at a cock ! " Since writing the 

 above, I have been told that a woodcock's nest has been found in Highden Wood, 

 about four miles from here. It was discovered by a woodman who was cutting some 

 copse-wood, and contained four eggs. As some accident invariably happens when a 

 bumpkin gets hold of anything rare, so this case, though it followed the rule, did not 

 prove it by being an exception, for the man rolled up the eggs in his smock frock and 

 sagaciously sat upon them ; not, however, with the same happy result as would have 

 attended the incubation of the real bird. — William Henry Hawker ; Horndean, Hants, 

 April 22, 1853. 



Woodcocks breeding in this country. — On Monday, the 25th of April last, a young 

 woodcock, about half grown, but unable to fly, was brought to my father by his game- 

 keeper, who found it, with two others, running about in a copse at Bloxworth, Dorset. 

 Now, to have arrived at this size by the 25th of April, they must at least have been 

 hatched by the first week of that month, so that the eggs were probably laid by the 10th 

 of March, perhaps earlier. I was not aware that the woodcock ever nested so early as 

 this, though I have always known it to be an early breeder. Does not this, then, show 

 the bad policy, to say the least of it, of shooting woodcocks, as is commonly the case, 

 " whenever they can be got at? " — though I must myself plead guilty to having been 

 instrumental in the death of eleven birds out of twelve found, on the 10th of March 

 last, in covers only a short distance from that in which the young ones were found. 

 All these twelve birds were in pairs, and perhaps some of them would have bred there, 

 or, indeed, might then have had nests with eggs. Had I at that time known of its 

 nesting so early, or that there was so fair a chance of their breeding with us, I should 

 by no means have molested them ; but I only then knew that they did occasionally 

 breed there, for a neighbour's keeper found some young ones, two or three years ago, 

 in an adjoining wood, though whether that was as early as April he did not tell me, 

 and this is the only other instance that has ever come to my knowledge. Late in the 

 season, towards the middle and end of March, up to which time they are considered 

 fair game, woodcocks lie very close and in pairs, and when put up, drop again almost 

 immediately, so that (the length of the day also telling against them) there is no part 

 of the season at which they are so sure of being eventually bagged. Added to this, 

 nearly all other shooting being over, woodcocks are increasingly persecuted whenever a 

 day's shooting is wanted by those whose sporting ardour has not quite cooled down 

 for the season. Woodcocks also fall an easy prey at this time to the keepers, who, re- 

 leased from attendance on shooting-parties, are then busily employed in killing rab- 

 bits; and as on these occasions every understrapper who can hold one musters a gun, 

 to aid in the extermination of rabbits, the unfortunate woodcocks get but a poor 

 chance; and I have myself seen, on such an occasion as this, a woodcock that had 

 been flushed several times, and after escaping repeated volleys fired by these under- 

 strappers, at last fall by an accidental shot from the gun of the worst marksman among 



