SCOLOPAX RUSTICOLA, 
Woodcock. 
Scolopax rusticola, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 60. 
major, Leach, Syst. Cat. of Spec, of Indig. Mamm. and Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 31. 
pmefortm, Brehm, Vdg. Deutschl., p. 613, pi. 32. tig. 3. 
sylvestris, Brehm, ibid., p. 614. 
Rusticola vulgaris, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat., tom. iii. p. 348. 
sylvestris, Macgill. Man. of Nat. Hist. Orn., vol. ii. p. 105. 
The principal summer home of the Woodcock is the northern portion of the Old World; and so widely 
is it spread over those parts of the globe that it is to be met with from eastern Siberia to the western 
extremity of Europe. There the main body of the Woodcocks lay their eggs and rear their young ; and 
thence, when nature prompts them so to do, they migrate in a southern direction, those of Kamtschatka 
probably resorting to Japan, those frequeiiting Mongolia to China, and those which have bred in western 
Siberia and. Thibet proceeding to the mountainous districts of Burmah, India, Affghanistan, and Persia. 
It must therefore be the Woodcocks that summer in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia which spread 
over the British Islands, continental Europe, Palestine, and North Africa. The bird also breeds yearly in 
the Madeiras, and, aecording to Mr. Frederick Godman, in the Azores. It has also onee occurred in 
Newfoundland. 
Now, although I have spoken of the Woodcock as an inhabitant of tbe north, there is not, I believe, a 
county in tbe central portion of England, or any part of- Scotland or Ireland, in wbicb it does not yearly 
breed in considerable abundance ; these, however, are but few when compared wdth the great numbers 
which resort for this purpose to the countries above alluded to. 
It is well known that the impulse which periodically stimulates a species to change its position is equally 
strong, whether the bird be in eonfinement or at large; a Turtledove in a cage, or a Cuckoo brought up by 
hand, each will destroy itself by dashing its head against the roof of its prison at the period when its 
fellows depart for other climes ; and, I believe, the Woodcocks which are bred in England and Scotland 
are prompted to leave their native woods, as the Snipes do the fells, and to proceed southward when the 
proper season arrives, like those whose breeding-quarters lie further north. All our native-bred birds, 
however, may not leave the British islands ; and I think it probable that the flights which appear 
yearly in Cornwall and the Scilly Islands may be a portion of them. These flights, whieh are said to 
arrive from the east, might go out to sea from our south coast. and, if they encounter adverse winds, 
double back upon Cornwall and Scilly. If this be not tbe case, I cannot account for their occurrence at tbe 
early period at which they are said to arrive. Mr. Rodd states that they make their first appearance in the 
neighbourhood of the Land’s End about tbe second week of October, and tbe first flights usually take 
place with a south-east wind; and Mr. Augustus Smith has furnished me with a precisely similar account 
of the arrival of the bird on the Scilly Islands. 
I need not recapitulate the hundreds of recorded instances of the bird’s breeding in England, Scotland, 
and Ireland ; but in confirmation of tbe fact I may state that I have myself several times reeeived young birds 
from localities in the counties of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent, as near to London as Caen Wood, at 
High gate, on the north, and Streatham Common on the south. The Marquis Camden tells me that at least 
a dozen nests have been found during a single season in his woods in Sussex. 
The late Mr. St. John states, in his ‘ Tour in Sutherlandshire,’ that “ the Woodcock breeds every season in 
the north of Scotland, not only in the large fir-plantations, but also in the smaller patches of bircb &c. 
which fringe the shores of many of the most northern lakes. That those bred in the country migrate, 
I have no doubt, as they all invariably disappear for two or three months between summer and the fii’st 
frosts of w'inter. As I have seen their nests at all times from March to August, it is natural to suppose 
that the Woodcock breeds more than once in the season.” 
Mr. Atholl MacGregor writes me word that Mr. White, the head keeper on Lord Mansfield’s estate in 
Scotland, says “ that all the under keepers can testify to Woodcocks breeding in every w'ood, and that one 
of them states that between thirty and forty remained in the covers under his charge during the months 
of April and May 1864, and that the greater number of them bred. Mr. White adds that in a short 
w'^alk on the 23rd of July he flushed three couples, and that his owm impression is that they breed two or 
three times in the summer, he having seen broods in the same stage of plumage both in May and August. 
When the month of August or September is dry, many of the birds leave ; but he thinks they do not go out 
of the country.” 
