438 WO O D C O C K. Class II. 



America ; but a kind is found there that has the 

 general appearance of it \ but is fcarce half the 

 fize, and wants the bars on the breaft and belly. 

 Dz scrip. The weight of the woodcock is ufnally about 

 twelve ounces: the length near fourteen inches: 

 the breadth twenty-fix : the bill is three inches 

 long, duiky towards the end, reddifh at the bafe: 

 tongue flender, long, {harp, and hard at the point: 

 the eyes large, and placed near the top of the head, 

 that they may not be injured when the bird thrufts 

 its bill into the ground : from the bill to the eyes 

 is a black line: the forehead is a reddifh am-color: 

 the crown of the head, the hind part of the neck, 

 the back, the coverts of the wings, and the fca- 

 pulars are prettily barred with a ferruginous red, 

 black and grey 3 but on the head the black pre- 

 dominates : the quil-feathers are dufky, indented 

 with red marks. 



The chin is of a pale yellow : the whole under- 

 fide of the body is of a dirty white, marked with 

 numerous tranfverfe lines of a dufky color. The 

 tail confifts of twelve feathers, dufky, or black on 

 the one web, and marked with red on the other: 

 the tips above are afh- colored, below white*, which, 

 when mooting on the ground was in vogue, was the 

 fign the fowler difcovered the birds by. The legs 

 and toes are livid; the latter divided almoft to their 

 very origin, having only a very fmall web between 

 the middle and interior toes -, as are thofe of the 

 two fpecies of fnipes found in England. 



Godw*t 



