AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 39 



It is now a well-ascertained fact that the female 

 Woodcock carries her young to and from the feeding- 

 grounds, for, although the chicks can run within a 

 very short time after being hatched, the nest is 

 generally situated in a dry locality, often on light 

 sandy soil, in which few, if any, earthworms are to 

 be found ; it appears also that the parent bird often 

 adopts this method of removing her young from 

 danger on the approach of man. For very interesting 

 details on this subject, and the manner in which 

 the carrying business is performed, I must refer my 

 readers to the 4th edition of Yarrell, vol. iii., and the 

 various authorities there cited. 



Our bird is found from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 

 and at the extreme S.W. extremity of its range, 

 i. e. the Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands, it 

 is stated to be a constant resident. 



In a most entertaining and exhaustive monograph 

 on the Woodcock, by Dr. Julius Hoifman, of Stutt- 

 gart, who has evidently devoted a great portion of 

 his life, with characteristic German thoroughness, to 

 the pursuit and study of this species, I find it stated 

 that in Central Europe the southern limit of the 

 breeding-range seems to lie between the 45th and 

 46th deg. N. lat. ; their south-eastern European limit, 

 however, extends further southwards, as the nest has 

 been occasionally met with in Roumelia. This author 

 adds, " Northwards of lat. 48° the Woodcock nests 

 all over Europe, but there are many more in the 

 East than in the West, and very few breed in France 

 and Belgium ... on the other hand they abound in 

 the Carpathians." 



Mr. Seebohm, in his * British Birds,' vol. iii., writes 

 of this bird : — " In Scandinavia it breeds up to the 



