160 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN BIRDS, 



There were Woodcocks, ( l0 ) and Snipes, both 

 Grallators of fame ; 

 Now distinguished, ah me! in our annals as Game; 



( I0 ) Order, Grall^e, (Linn.) Woodcock, Snipe, Curlew, 

 Godwit, Green-Shank, &c. 



The genus Scolopax, (Linn.) to which the Woodcock, 

 Scolopax Rusticola, belongs, consists of fifty-six or more species, 

 of which fifteen are common to this country. The chief cha- 

 racteristics of this genus are the bill, more than an inch and 

 half long, slender, straight, weak. Nostrils linear, lodged in a 

 furrow j tongue slender, pointed; toes divided to their origin, 

 or slightly connected ; back toe small. The chief of these are 

 the following : 



The Rusticola, or Woodcock, is fifteen inches long ; bill 

 three inches, straight and reddish at the base ; forehead cinere- 

 ous, the rest of the upper part of the body a mixture of ferrugi- 

 nous black and grey disposed in bars ; beneath yellowish white, 

 with dusky streaks. Flesh and intestines good. Five or six va- 

 rieties, with white or pale straw-coloured body, spotted or other- 

 wise diversified. In the summer they retreat in France to the 

 loftier mountains, and from England towards the mountainous 

 regions of Norway and Sweden; some, it is said, to America; 

 but a few remain in this country the whole year, and, of course, 

 breed here. They are found as far south as Smyrna, Aleppo, 

 and Barbary, and as far East as Japan. They are also found in 

 Canada and Cape Breton. 



This bird is dressed for being eaten without having its intes- 

 tines taken out. 



What ground there may be for the saying I do not know, but 

 Philips, in his Cyder,has the following lines on the woodcock: 



" The woodcock's early visit and abode 

 Of long continuance in our temperate clime 

 Foretell a liberal harvest:" 



