The Hiftory of ANIMALS. 
472 
Numenius capita utrinque linea nigra notato. 
T^he Numenius , with a black line on each fide 
the head. 
The woodcock is a very beautiful, as well as delicate, bird ; it is fomewhat fmaller 
than the partridge : the head is moderately large and rounded ; the beak is Ion? and 
llender, of a cylindric figure, and obtufe at the point: it is brown toward the extre¬ 
mity, but paler, and often flefh-coloured, toward the head : the upper chap is a little 
longer than the under, but the difference is inconfiderable: the ears are large and 
open 5 the eyes ftand higher up the head than in any other known bird; this teems a 
provifion of nature, that they may not be injured, while the bird is plunging it’s 
beak, as it frequently does, up to the bafe, in the foft and wet ground. 
The head has on each fide an elegant and regular line of black : the upper part of 
the body is of a mixed colour, mottled with black, grey, and a reddifti-brown, in a 
very beautiful variegation : the front of the head is of a greyifh-brown ; the bread 
and belly are of a pale grey, with little tranfverfe lines of a bright brown : the upper 
part of the throat is of a whitifh-yellow, and the under furface of the tail is alfo fome¬ 
what yellowifli: the hinder part of the head is principally black, but there are two or 
three tranfverfe lines of brown on it. 
The long feathers of the wings are twenty-three in each; they are black, but 
have fome tranfverfe lines of brown, and the feathers under the wings are beautifully 
variegated with grey and brown: the tail is fhort, and confifts of twelve feathers, the 
tips of which are grey on the upper fide, and white underneath, and their edges are 
marked with a dentated line of brownilh, the reft in general black. 
The legs are of a pale brown, and the claws are black; the hinder toe is very 
fmall : the male is fomewhat darker than the female in this fpecies, in it’s general 
colouring. 
We have the woodcock in confiderable plenty in our woods, efpecially where the 
ground is damp, the whole winter feafon; early in fpring they leave us. They fly 
away in pairs, in order to build; but we fometimes have feen them left here, and they 
have built and brought up their young. All the writers on birds have mentioned this 
fpecies. Gefner calls it Rufticola five Perdix ruftica major ; Aldrovand, Scolopax five 
Perdix ruftica; Willughby, Scolopax; others, Gallinago major; the general name 
among the prefent writers is Scolopax. 
Numenius urrhopygio albo pedibus vireficentibus . 
Tdhe green-legged Numenius , with a white rump. 
This, though honoured with the name of the great Plover, is not a very large 
bird : the head is round and fmall; the eyes are fmall, but of a piercing afped : the ears 
are large and patulous: the beak is more than two inches in length ; it is flender, and 
of a cylindric figure, and is black, except toward the bafe, where it is red: the head, 
neck, fhoulders, and back are elegantly variegated with greyifh, brownilh, and 
whitifh, but the whole mixture feigns what we call a clouded grey : the edges of the 
feathers, which cover the top of the head, are white; but the middle part of the 
fame feathers is black as jet: the rump is of a fnow-white, and the whole breaft and 
belly are alfo of that elegant colour. 
The wings are moderately large; their long feathers are twenty in each, and they 
are all brown; the five exterior ones are darker than the reft, and many of them have 
little fpots of white irregularly fcattered over them : the tail is about an inch and 
three quarters in length, and is very beautiful; it is compofed of twelve feathers, and 
is marked with alternate and undulated fafciae, or tranfverfe bands of white and 
brown. 
The 
