THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
cross-bands ; rest of the underparts pale buff, barred with brown. Iris 
dark brown; bill dusky brown; livid or pale flesh -colour at the base of 
the lower mandible ; feet greyish. 
Adult male . — Total length about 15 inches; bill, from feathers on 
forehead to tip, about 2*85 to 3*0 inches; wing 7*5 inches; tail 3*5 inches; 
tarsus 1*55 inch. 
Adult female . — The bill is usually longer than in the male, 3*0 to 
3*3 inches ; while the other measurements are usually less ; wing 
7*3 inches; tail 2*9 inches; tarsus 1*4 inch. The female may almost 
always be recognized by the longer bill, the only reliable external 
character for distinguishing the sexes. 
The young bird in first autumn-plumage . — Differs from the adult in being 
smaller and darker above, and in having the feathers of the back 
and scapulars less distinctly tipped with cream-colour or buff, never with 
grey ; no subterminal buff line between the dark smoky grey tip and the 
black portion of the tail-feathers ;* the outer web of the first long primary 
quill usually edged with buff or sometimes partially notched towards 
the tip of the feather, rarely toothed with buff throughout. The first 
character has generally been attributed to very old birds, the last men- 
tioned to birds of the year. 
Young in down. — ^Whitish -buff, widely striped and mottled with chestnut 
above; a wide chestnut band extending from the base of the bill to the 
rump, darkest on the crown and back; one or two transverse buff bands 
across the crown between the eyes indicating the markings of the adult ; 
a dark chestnut band from the gape to the eye, and thence extending 
down the side of the neck to the shoulder; wings mixed with chestnut; 
a light chestnut band on each side of the back, divided from the darker 
median band by a pale buff area ; underparts buff ; a rather distinct chest- 
nut band across the throat, and a less marked band at the base of the neck ; 
thighs and flanks blotched with pale chestnut. 
The following notes, recently contributed by the writer to “ Country 
Life ” (with photographs of the first primary quill-feathers taken from 
old and young woodcocks), are here reproduced by the kind permission 
of the proprietors. 
“How to distinguish the male from the female woodcock, and the old 
birds from birds of the year by their plumage, are questions which have 
long puzzled both naturalists and sportsmen ; certain characters to be 
■*Seebohm states that the buflf line is characteristic of young birds of the year, but this is certainly an error. 
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