The 
Woodcock. 
(83) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
The Woodcock. 
(,Scolopax rusticola ), 
By JOHN FLEWELLING. 
Needless to say, a special interest attaches to 
migratory birds. 
The naturalist’s and a plurality of pens have 
from time to time placed before the reader their 
-description, haunts, habits, and so on, so that to 
supplement is to some extent to bore—at least 
certain people. Others, and they are not the 
few, still find ever a fresh welcome for a page 
-devoted to this charming class of feathered ones. 
Chief of His Clan. 
A real game-looking bird is the Woodcock; 
“ don ” of his family. 
Shy in the extreme, and wonderfully adroit is 
he; twisting, diving, and dipping in and out of 
the network of twigs, clear of them all, and 
ultimately vanishing, a mere streak of grey and 
hrown. On another view one perceives him, 
when startled or frightened, squatting down as 
closely as a cowed rabbit. 
The bird is a pretty creature, with his rich 
pencilling, fawn or light-brown, drab or smoked- 
grey, with over shades of a darker hue. He 
potters about in the dead leaves of the monarch 
oak and its neighbours, and flicks his tail up, 
an innocent invitation to the fowling-piece. 
Protective Colouring 
When quiet, huddled up under the branches of 
evergreen, the Woodcock’s plumage so harmon¬ 
ises with the tones of its resting place, one might 
almost pass it unnoticed in the withered and 
tinted leaves, but the handsome and moist owly 
eye of the bird (master of the gloaming light) 
hetrays its whereabouts. 
Large numbers breed in the United Kingdom 
•every year, but the vast body come from foreign 
shores, to return thither. Some of course, how¬ 
ever, do not escape capture. 
Hawked, netted, and otherwise taken, these 
plump, prim, and erect-looking creatures were 
•extensively thinned of yore 
A Lover of Home. 
Unlike the Snipe, distributed all over the 
country where morasses, bogs, and suitable dis¬ 
tricts are, the Woodcock cherishes his own par¬ 
ticular locality. 
When not molested by the tripper, he loves to 
shoot through a glade or favourite track from the 
hills to feeding-places on the moors or moist 
grounds below. 
In Scotland and Ireland both Snipe and Wood¬ 
cock are especially plentiful. These are both 
irreat breeding and assembling places for this 
ilk. Large numbers congregate in the marshes 
and bogs of the southern counties of England, 
and in coverts on the Surrey hills; at New St. 
Leonards, also, many may be come across, vary¬ 
ing in markings and depth of colour, likewise in 
size. 
Birthplace, food and climate, these all play 
part in the plumage and size of the migrant. 
Feeding and Family Habits. 
The southern counties Woodcock are credited 
with early breeding. A case is recorded of a 
female bird being seen running about with her 
brood in and out some half-melted patches of 
snow on a moor border near the forest. In very 
severe weather Snipe and Woodcock may be seen 
feeding with the shore-fowl, whatever may be 
conformable to fact in regard to this in general. 
This long-billed friend is largely a feeder at 
night, and when the weather is dull. On clear 
nights he will be most successful. In secluded 
localities on some of our coasts mothers and 
chicks feed by day. 
Woodcocks paddle occasionally, and, what is 
now a recognised fact, carry their young to and 
from the nest to the moorland feeding grounds 
The female alone is credited with this “ Pick- 
a-back,” but some believe the cock also has a 
claim. 
The chick is very tiny—avoirdupois neces¬ 
sarily ditto. 
Weight of Woodcocks. 
Remarkable is the difference in weight of 
mature Woodcock; a well-fed specimen may 
scale 10, 11, 12 ozs., others as high as 14 or 
15, and here and there a bird even 22 ozs. Some 
go not much over 8 oz c . 
Both Snipe and Woodcock feed much alike; 
worms of all sorts form their menu. Extinct is 
now the old living-by-suction belief, when 
curious and strong prejudices existed with many 
in regard to this bird’s being a suitable candidate 
for the dish. As a matter of fact, served up on 
toast he is what may be described as a dainty 
morsel. 
At one time this was a bird little known to the 
general public—more heard about than seen. An 
old-time sportsman’s bagging a single cock or 
a brace in our marshlands was looked upon as 
a feat. 
1 A Wonderful Traveller. 
Examining closely the Woodcock’s lovely wings 
one wonders at the perfection of anatomical 
construction. 
The covering of marvellously long distances. 
—to us—is a matter of small moment to these 
visitors or other birds of passage. When migrat¬ 
ing in the air, far above the human sight, what 
must their speed be? 
Woodcocks have been successfully kept in con¬ 
finement. 
