THE WOOD-COCKS. 
207 
spot ; under wing coverts and axillaries tawny-buff barred with 
blackish ; lower primary-coverts and quill-lining ashy-gre)% 
notched with buff on the inner webs ; bill dusky-brown, livid 
at base of lower mandible; feet greyish; iris dark brown. 
Total length, 15 inehes; culmen, 2-85; wing, 7 ' 5 ; tail, 3'S ; 
tarsus, I '55. . 
Adult Female. — Similar to the male. Total length, 14 mehes ; 
wing, 7-5. 1 u • 
Young Birds.— Always darker than the adults, and having 
creamy-whiiish, instead of ashy, spots at the end of the dorsal 
and scapular feathers ; the lower back, rump, and upper tail- 
coverts are plainly barred across with dusky-brown, aird the 
tail-feathers are not only largely notched with sandy-buff on 
their margins, but have a narrow sub-terminal line of sandy-bult 
between the ashy tip and the black of the rest of the feathers. 
The outer web of the primaries has a distinct series of fulvous 
notches. 
Winter Plumage.— Darker than the summer plumage, but not 
otherwise different. , , , , 
The variation in size of Wood cocks is very reniarkaole, but 
I quite agree with Mr. Ogilvie-Grant that there is only one 
species and that the so-called “light” race is only the young 
bird ; but when this is admitted, the extraordinary difference in 
size in some individuals cannot be overlooked. Thus a specimen 
from Cornwall in the British Museum is a perfect dwarf, com- 
pared with the generality of British specimens, and has the bill 
only 2-15 inches in length, and the wing only 6 4, instead of 
2-85 and 7-5 inches respectively in averaged-sized birds. Al- 
though there arc some individuals in the British Museum, 
which are marked as being females, and equal the males in size, 
there can, 1 think, be no doubt that, as a rule, she is a larger 
bird than her mate. 
Nestling.— Covered with velvety down of a rufous colour, with 
a broad band of chcslnut-brown down the centre of the crown, 
and another down the centre of the back, with three broad 
transverse bands down the sides of the body ; on each side- of 
the crown and dorsal stripe a broad streak of isabelline ; a black 
loral line and a central streak on the forehead also black ; under 
surface of body pale rufous, inclining to isabelline on the abdo- 
