14 
WOODCOCKS. 
tried my luck again : this time an owlet came to liglit, less 
than half the size of the first, and apparently youthful in 
proportion to his littleness ; he also was consigned to the 
pocket, and then a third, exactly like the second. After a 
good deal of groping ahout, I felt pretty sure there were 
no more owls or owlets to be found, but there was some- . 
thing very much like eggs. So I ventured to feel with an 
ungloved hand, and brought out three eggs, one at a time ; 
they were very warm, and were half buried in something 
like highly dried pulverized mice, which I presume to have 
been produced by long trampling on the pellets cast up by 
the old owls. Having carefully deposited one egg in each 
waistcoat-pocket, and a third in my mouth, and having 
screwed up in paper some of the dust, I commenced my 
descent, and landing in safety, sat down to examine my 
treasures. One of the old owls returned in the mean time, 
perched on a bough at a little distance, and strove to look 
as philosophical as possible under her loss. Determined 
to understand as much as possible of the economy of this 
' happy family,' I proceeded to pierce the eggs. One was 
addled, this was not the one I brought down in my mouth, 
the others were ^ sot-hard,' as our countrymen express it : 
the owlets were too far advanced towards hatching, to per- 
mit of the eggs being blown. 
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,' adjoining Munsted farm, 
and belonging to the Milford estate. We have two kinds 
of woodcock, the little black cock, which is comparatively 
rare, and the large pale cock, which is common. I have 
