WOODCOCK. 
299 
resident in the Island, has in his collection woodcocks in 
every stage of growth, from the egg to the full-fledged 
bird. 
Occasionally — (he adds) — in the spring, flights, ap- 
parently on their way from the south, drop in the woods 
on the north side of the Island. Forty were found one day 
in Parkhurst Forest in the spring of 1844." 
He also incidentally confirms Hawker's date as regards 
the birds nesting, reporting that one of the New Forest 
keepers knew of four nests there during the spring of 
1844. 
Mr. Thomas Gulliver, of Horsebridge Hill, near Newport, 
tells us that when he was ranger of Parkhurst Forest, there 
used to be a good many there, and the most he ever saw 
was — in three days' shooting — 40, 35, 35. Also he has 
found several nests and seen dozens of young ones, and 
has seen the old bird " catch up one and fly into a bush 
with it, and return again for another.*' From about 1844, 
they, no doubt, nested commonly in the New Forest. 
The late Duke of Beaufort tells us ^ that he came upon 
a female woodcock watering her three young at a rivulet 
in the Forest in 1850. "She picked up one in each claw 
and flew off with them. I hid in a high gorse-brake close 
by, and saw her return in four or five minutes and pick up 
the remaining bird also in her claw." 
The Hon. Grantley Berkeley wrote 2 : — " Ah ! what 
is that wounded bird that has flown up from the low bushes 
beneath yon woodman's feet, and fluttering for the space 
of twenty yards, seems able to fly no further, but lighting 
on a bare spot full in sight, sits with extended wings, and 
shaking them as if in pain ? That is a woodcock en- 
' Fur, Feather and Fin Series. " Snipe and Woodcock." 
- " Reminiscences of a Huntsman.*' 1854. 
