WOODCOCK 
SCOLOPAX RUSTICULA 
(Plate XXIII) 
Scohpax rusticola, Linn. Syst. Nat., i, p. 243 (1766) ; Gould, Birds Europe, v, pi. 319 
(1837); Dresser, Birds Europe, vii, p. 615, pi. 540 (1877) ; Hume and Marshall, Game Birds 
Ind., iii, p. 309, pi. (1880) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. Birds, iii, p. 231 (1885). 
Rusticola sylvestris, MacgilHvray. Man. Brit. Birds, ii, p, 105 (1842). 
Scohpax rusticula, Saunders, ed. Yarrell, Brit. Birds, iii, p. 320 (1883); Lilford, Col. Fig. 
Brit. Birds, pt. vii (1888) ; pt. xiv (1890). Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxiv, p. 671 (1896) ; 
Saunders, III. Man. Brit. Birds, p. 569 (1899) ; Oates, Man. Game Birds Ind., ii, p. 428 (1899) ; 
Ogilvie-Clrant, Country Life, 1910, p. 69. 
Walsingham and Payne-Gallwey, “Badminton Library,” Marsh and Moor. The Wood- 
cock, p. 112 (1886). 
Shaw and Ussher, Fur, Feather, and Fin Series,” Snipe and Woodcock (1904). 
DULT male and female. — General colour of the upperparts 
mottled with rufous, black, buff and grey, the ground - 
/ colour being rufous, coarsely marked with black cross - 
j lines and blotches, with grey or buff tips to many of the 
i feathers , forming spots or bands , especially down the sides 
of the interscapular region and scapulars ; lower back, 
rump, and upper tail -coverts light chestnut, with narrow blackish cross- 
bars. Quills dark brown, notched with rufous; the outer web of the first 
long primary quill being either margined or notched with pale buff, a purely 
individual character found in both adult and young birds (figs. 1 and 2). 
Tail-feathers black, notched with chestnut on the outer webs, and broadly 
tipped with smoky-grey above and silvery white below, the grey portion 
Fig. 1. First long flight-feather of adult Woodcoek showing outer web margined with bufif. 
Fig. 2. First long flight-feather of adult Woodcock showing outer web notched with pale buflF. 
being divided from the black portion by a narrow buff line. Forehead, ashy 
grey; lores, sides of the head and chin, as well as the upper part of the 
throat, white; a brownish -black band from the base of the mandible to 
the eye; crown black, barred with rufous, with three or four whitish-buff 
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