FLIGHT AND BREEDING. 
149 
of the bird so caught hf the neck. The colours of the 
Woodcock's phimage are generally sober and subdued, like 
those of the Partridge ; but their general harmony, and 
the grace and delicacy of the pencillings, render it as 
beautiful a bird as it is a highly valued one for the table ; 
seldom does it weigh more than twelve ounces, and yet a 
brace will commonly fetch six or seven shillings. Ireland 
is the great shooting ground for Woodcocks, that is as far 
as Great Britain is concerned ; and there also will the Snipe- 
shooter meet with the largest measure of success. 
M. Lesson says, ' The ordinary flight of the Woodcock 
is moderately quick, sedate, and unlike that of the Snipe, 
which is rapid, undulated, and performed with quick beats 
of the wing. It walks with ease, and on occasions quickly, 
but is not addicted to running or much wading, although it 
readily goes into the water ; the common earthworm ap- 
pears to be its favourite food, although it eats all kinds of 
insects, slugs, and other small animals. The nest is placed 
in various situations, sometimes in woods about the margins 
of thickets, sometimes in open places. It is a slight hol- 
low, lined with small twigs and leaves ; the eggs, four in 
number, are of a blunt pear shape, yellowish white, clouded 
and spotted with grey and reddish brown or dusky. Con- 
siderable numbers breed in Scotland, and also in England, 
but not so many. A Woodcock's nest in this country was 
once considered to be a wonderful thing ; but it is not so 
now, for so many instances have occurred that there can 
be no doubt it is a permanent resident with us.' 
* Eusticus,' of Godalming, says :— 
Woodcocks -frequently breed with us. I recollect meeting with 
young ones on many occasions. Once in particular I remember 
putting up an old hen and three young ones, two-thirds grown, 
when rabbit shooting in a field called the * fourteen acres,' adjoin- 
ing Munstead farm, and belonging to the Milford estate. We have 
two kinds of Woodcock, the little black cock, which is compara- 
tively rare, and the large pale cock, which is common. I have 
always supposed the little black cock to be the male, and the 
other the female ; but I have no evidence of this, and our best 
sportsmen think differently, and urge the difference in number, 
which is as fifty to one, the difference in size, which is as great 
as between a full Snipe and a Jack, the difference in colour, and 
a dififerenqe in the comparative length of the beak and shank. 
