340 
WOODCOCKS AND SNIPES. 
ceeded in killing a Jack-Snipe, deeply lamented tke loss of a 
bird which, as he was always sure of finding it in the same 
place, had afforded him constant amusement during a whole 
Winter. Of this attachment to a particular spot and regular 
return to it, there can he no doubt ; we have already alluded 
to it in the case of other birds, and Woodcocks and Snipes : 
seem to form no exceptions to the practice. One instance 
amongst many will be sufficient to prove the fact. A Wood- 
cock was accidentally found by a keeper, entangled in a 
rabbit-net and preserved alive; a brass ring was put on its 
left leg, and it was turned loose. This occurred in February. 
On finding itself at liberty, it rose to a very great height in 
the air, and directed its flight towards the sea, from whence 
it was distant about twenty miles. In December, this same 
bird was shot in the same wood where it had been captured 
in the preceding February. 
That Woodcocks, however, can and do breed in this 
country is beyond a doubt ; instances without end have 
occurred ; one of which alone we shall notice, on account of 
a very curious circumstance connected with it. 
The communication first appeared in a Scotch newspaper, 
the Elgin Courier. In the month of April, near Dornaway 
Castle, the seat of the Earl of Moray, a Woodcock was 
flushed, which flew as if wounded. On a person, who was 
present, remarking this to the gamekeeper, the latter observed, 
that the bird was not wounded, but was carrying off a young 
one in her talons, and that no doubt the nest was close at 
hand : this was found to be the case, and two other young 
ones were discovered in it, which, on being disturbed, ran off, 
uttering a piping note. The keeper spoke very positively of 
its being customary with the old birds to fly off every morn- 
ing and evening with the young ones to the nearest springs, 
and when they were fed, they were conveyed back to the 
nest in a similar manner. 
In the first edition of this work we expressed a doubt as 
to the correctness of the keeper’s account, admitting only the 
possibility that it might be true, from a knowledge that some 
other birds were in the habit of transporting either their 
