296 
THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE. 
In his eighth letter to Barrington ^ he writes : — " Sure 
there can be no doubt but that woodcocks and fieldfares 
leave us in the spring, in order to cross the seas and retire 
to some districts more suitable to the purpose of breeding. 
That the former pair before they retire, and that the hens 
are forward with egg, I myself, when I was a sportsman, 
have often experienced. It cannot, indeed, be denied but 
that now and then we hear of a woodcock's nest, or young 
birds, discovered in some part or other of this island ; but 
then they are always mentioned as rarities, and somewhat 
out of the common course of things." 
In the following letter 2 he suggests that the " strange 
laziness " which they sometimes showed might be " the 
effect of a recent fatiguing journey." 
It is evident from the perusal of his manuscript Journal 
that in all his forty years at Selborne he never came across 
an instance of the birds' nesting in that neighbourhood, 
though Jesse, in his Second Series of "Gleanings in 
Natural History" (1836), mentions their breeding every 
year in woods adjoining Wolmer Forest, and his informant 
made a point of having some on his table on the 30th of 
June every year. 
In another familiar passage ^ White throws doubt upon 
Scopoli's assertion that the bird carries its young in its 
beak (" pullos rostro portat .... "), remarking that its 
long, unwieldy bill " is perhaps the worst adapted of any 
among the winged creation for such a feat of natural 
affection." 
It is now well known, and has often been observed in 
this county, that the woodcock carries its young with its 
^ Dated Selborne, December 20th, 1770. 
= Written from Pyfield, near Andover, February I2th, 177 1. 
3 Letter xxxi. to Pennant. Selborne. September 14th, 1770. 
