42 
WOODCOCK SNIPE. Cuass IL. 
accidentally during the summer. In Case-wood, 
about two miles from Tunbridge, a few breed al- 
most annually; the young having been shot there 
the beginning of August, and were as healthy and 
vigorous as they are with us in the winter, but 
not so well tasted : a female with egg was shot in, 
that neighborhood in April ; the egg was the:size 
of that of a pigeon. They are remarkably tame 
during incubation; a person who discovered 
one on its nest, has often stood over, and even 
stroaked it; netwithstanding which it hatched 
the young, and in due time disappeared with 
them. 
Woodcocks first appear in Scotland on the 
eastern coasts, and make their progress from 
East to West. They do not arrive in Bread- 
albane, a central part of the kingdom, till the 
beginning or middle of November ; nor on the 
coasts of Nether Lorn, or of Ross-shire, till 
December or January: they are very rare in 
the more remote Hebrides, or in the Orknies ; 
a few stragglers now and then arrive there. 
They are equally scarce in Cathness. I do not 
recollect that any have been discovered to have 
bred in North Britain. 
Their autumnal and vernal appearances on 
the coast of Suffolk have been most accurately 
marked by Sir John Cullum, Bar‘. who fa- 
