WOOD-BORING BEETLES. See Bosrzr- 
CHID A. 
WOODCOCK, —scientifically Scolopax Rusti- 
cola. A British bird of passage, belonging to the 
longirostrous family of Gralle, and constituting 
the type of a large portion of that family. It is 
a bird thoroughly known to all sportsmen; and 
though not classed as game, affords them to the 
full as much diversion as any birds which are so 
classed. It begins to appear in Britain about 
Michaelmas, and departs in March; and it is 
regulated, as to the precise period of its migra- 
tion, more by the wind than by the moon. It 
arrives in flocks during the night or in a fog; 
and it soon becomes less gregarious, and after- 
| wards pairs while in this country. The wood- 
cocks which arrive first in the season are the 
largest, and fly heavily, and are muffled in the 
under parts of their head, and somewhat also in 
| the other parts of it, with short feathers; those 
which arrive in November and December are 
rather smaller, and have smoother feathers and a 
| shorter bill; and those which arrive about Candle- 
mas are quicker of wing than their predecessors, 
and take longer flights, and are more difficult to 
be shot in consequence of their not rising above 
the spray. The weight of the woodcock, on the 
average, is from 12 to 14 ounces; the length is 
15 inches, and the breadth 26; the bill is 3 inches 
long, hollowed lengthwise with deep furrows, 
reddish at the base, dusky towards the end, and 
furnished with a somewhat fleshy tip, which ap- 
pears susceptible of a sort of touch for detecting 
its prey in the moist earth; the upper mandible 
hangs over the lower, and forms the round point 
of the bill; the tongue is slender, long, sharp, 
and hard at the point; the eyes are large, and 
situated near the top of the head ; the head has 
a remarkable shape, being rather triangular than 
round ; the ears are placed far forward, nearly on 
a line with the corners of the mouth; a black 
line extends from the bill to the eyes; the fore- 
head has a reddish ash-colour; the crown of the 
head, the hind part of the neck, the back, the 
coverts of the wings, and the scapulars, are pret- 
tily barred with a ferruginous red, black, and 
grey, but on the head the black predominates ; 
the under eye-lid is white; the chin is ash- 
colour; the fore part of the neck is yellowish, 
and marked with dusky minute dashes; the un- 
der parts of the body are dirty white, barred with 
numerous transverse dusky lines; the quill fea- 
thers are dusky, and marked on the outer web 
with triangular rufous spots; the tail consists of 
twelve feathers, dusky or black on the one web, 
and marked with red on the other; the tips of 
the tail are ash-coloured above, and white below; 
the shades of the plumage are so blended that 
the bird, as usually observed by the sportsman, 
exactly resembles the withered stalks and leaves 
of ferns, sticks, mosses, and grasses, on the back 
ground of the scenery by which it is sheltered ; 
dnd the legs and toes are pale flesh-coloured 
_ WOODLOUSE. 
brown,—and the latter are almost entirely di- 
vided, having only a very small web between the 
middle and the interior toes. The nest is placed 
on the ground, generally against an old stump or 
great root of a tree, and consists merely of a few 
dried fibres and leaves. The eggs amount to 4 
or 5, and are larger than those of the pigeon, and 
have a rufous grey colour, marked with dusky 
blotches. The flesh is regarded by most epicures 
as delicious, and thought superior in flavour to 
that of the partridge. 
WOOD EVERLASTING PEA. 
RUS. 
WOOD EVIL. A disease in cattle somewhat 
similar to enteritis. It arises from browsing on 
the buds of trees, particularly those of the oak 
and the ash; it does not comprise so much intes- 
tinal inflammation, or so speedily run its course, 
as enteritis ; it is indicated by heat of the mouth 
and skin, thirst, colicky pains, depression, ex- 
cessive constipation, difficulty of voiding urine, 
hardness of the feeces, and redness and powerful 
odour of the urine; it continues during from 12 
to 20 days, and, in bad cases, terminates in gan- 
grene and death; and it must be treated with 
bleeding, purging, the application of blisters or 
hot water to the belly, and the restriction of the 
diet to gruel and mashes, The name wood evil 
is also given by some cow-doctors to some rheu- 
matic complaints, and to general debility re- 
sulting from inflammatory action. 
WOODLAND. Land occupied by assemblages 
of trees. See the articles Woop, Coppicnr, and 
PLANTATION. 
WOODLAND. Any dark-coloured, humous, 
argillaceous soil of similar appearance and pro- 
perties to that of old and ill-drained woods, which 
is kept perpetually moist by the dropping of 
trees, the fall and decay of leaves, the want of 
ventilation and sunshine, and a low and em- 
barrassed state of evaporation. The name wood- 
land, in this application of it, is provincial and 
lax, yet conveys a considerable degree of descrip- 
tive meaning. The soil designated by it retains 
fora long time any water which falls upon it, 
and in wet weather sticks firmly to the plough- 
share, and in prolonged drought is very apt to 
crack, and, when not worked well and constantly 
by cultivation, commonly produces rushes and 
other coarse aquatic vegetation. 
WOOD-LARK. See Lark. 
WOODLOUSE,—scientifically Oniseus. <A ge- 
nus of minute animals, classed by some natural- 
ists as apterous insects, and by others as isopodous 
crustaceans. Their body has a flattened appear- 
ance, or is broader than thick ; their feet amount 
to fourteen, and are unguiculated, and have not 
any vesicular appendage at the base; and the 
under part of their tail is furnished with very 
apparent appendages resembling leaflets or vesi- 
cular burse. They inhabit retired and obscure 
places, such as fissures in walls, old buildings, 
cellars, and the interstices between boulders and 
See Latny- 
es 
——— 
