WOODCOCK. 
172 
we have also authentic records of their breeding;* 
and various scattered instances have been noted, in 
different periodicals, &c., of nests being found in 
other and more southern districts of England. But 
all these can merely be looked upon as cases on the 
very limit of their breeding range, and not at all 
similar to birds, which, though they remove, or par- 
tially migrate, yet regularly and in numbers breed 
with us. 
Like a great proportion of the aquatic birds, a 
dry spot is selected for the nest, often at a consi- 
derable distance from water. By one writer, the 
nests were said to be all placed in “ dry, warm 
situations, amongst dead grass and leaves, without 
any attempt at concealment j” and, by Sir Francis 
Mackenzie, “ the soil where the nests were found is 
gravelly and rather dry ; the grass tolerably long, 
without underwood ; and the trees, oak, birch, 
and larch, not exceeding thirty years growth." In 
Norway, “ they (eggs) were placed upon the bare 
ground, under some brushwood, and in a place from 
which the timber had been cleared, and in which 
the young spruce firs were again springing.” f The 
eggs are of a pale purplish-brown, sometimes yel- 
lowish-white, with irregular markings of a deep 
brown tint. 
The Woodcock, when first arriving in this country, 
may be found in whin covers on the coast, or at a 
great distance from wood, often on the moors, amidst 
* Selby. f Hewitson. 
