OF SELBOENE. 
101 
p. 211, has some interesting remarks on this subject from his own obser- 
ration. He says : " That the old birds carried their young I had long 
since ascertained, having often seen them in the months of April and 
May in the act of doing so, as they flew, towards nightfall, from the 
woods down to the swamps in the low grounds. From close observa- 
tion, however, I found out that the old woodcock carries her young even 
when larger than a snipe, not in her claws, which seem quite inca- 
pable of holding up any weight, but by clasping the little bird tightly 
between her thighs, and so holding it tight towards her own body. In 
the summer and spring evenings the woodcocks may be seen so employed 
passing to and fro, and uttering a gentle cry on their way from the 
woods to the marshes. They not only carry their young to feed, but 
also, if the brood is suddenly come upon in the daytime, the old bu'd lifts 
up one of her young, flies with it fifty or sixty yards, drops it quietly, 
and flies silently on. The little bird immediately runs a few yards, 
and then squats flat on the ground amongst the dead leaves, or what- 
ever the ground is covered with. The parent soon returns to the rest 
of her brood, and if the danger still threatens her, she lifts up and car- 
ries away another young bird in the same manner. I saw this take 
place on the 18th of May." This is confirmed by a correspondent who, 
writing from Rostrevor, Co. Down, in August, 1871, says : " On the 2nd 
of this month I started a brace of woodcocks close to me. One of them 
had a young one pressed between its breast and feet ; it lighted on the 
ground again after rising, apparently to get a better grasp of its young 
one, and then flew ofi" with it. They were near the edge of a wood, in 
the afternoon and during sunshine." Another correspondent, writing 
from Rohallion, Birnam, in "The Field" of 26th August, 1871, says: 
" This spring (1871) I have been witness repeatedly to the ability of 
the woodcock to carry its young and fly ofl* with them pressed to its 
body by its legs. This was in May and June." Some additional 
evidence will be found in Mr. Stevenson's " Birds of Norfolk," vol. ii. 
p. 292. 
This curious habit has been noticed also m the North American 
woodcock, as testified by Audubon and others, while more recently the 
same thing has been observed in England of the common snipe. A 
well-known sportsman, who has adopted the pseudonym of " Idstone," 
writing in " The Field" of 30th May, 1874, says that, on the 22nd of 
the same month, when crossing a marsh on his way to a trout stream, a 
snipe rose almost at his feet, " and there was attached to it, mostly on 
its left or near side, a young snipe which it carried, or which clung to it, 
for about twenty-five yards." He coiild distinctly see the markings on 
the young one, and is therefore positive that he was not mistaken. The 
locality was close to Lawrence's Mill, Morden, Dorsetshire. 
In the same number of " The Field," Mr. John Titterton, of Ely, 
Cambs., says that a similar thing was observed near Ely also in May of 
the same year. — Ed. 
