SCOLOPAX RUSTICOLA, Unn.
Woodcock.
Scolopax rustic??/!*. Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 60.
-----------major, Leach, Syst. Cat. of Spec, of Indig. Matron. and Birds in Brit. Mus.
pmetonm, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., p. 613, pi. 32. fig. 3.
— si/kwtris, Brehm, ibid., p. 614.
mUptris, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat., tom. iii, p. 348.
sgtvestris, Macgill. Man. of Nat. Hist. Orn., vol. ii. -p. 105.
p. 31.
Newfoundland.
ner home of the Woodcock is the northern portion of the Old World ; and so widely
lose parts of the globe th at it is to be met with from eastern Siberia to the western
There the main body o f the Woodcocks lay their eggs and rear their young ; and
i prompts them so to do, they migrate in a southern direction, those o f Kamtschatka
to Japan, those frequenting Mongolia to China, and those which have bred in western
proceeding to the mountainous districts of Burmah, India, Afghanistan, and Persia,
it* the Woodcocks that summer in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia which spread
ands, continental Europe, Palestine, and North Africa. The bird also breeds yearly in
according to. Mr. Frederick Godman, in the Azores. It has also once occurred in
although I have spoken o f the Woodcock as an inhabitant of the north, there is not, I believe, a
a the central portion o f England, or any p art o f Scotland or Ireland, in which it does not yearly
considerable abundance; these, however, are but few when compared with the great numbers
sort for this purpose to the countries above alluded to.
kiwwo that the raroulsi
hand, each will (feivo
fellows depart tor othi
are prompted to leave
i periodically ¡milates a species to change its position is equally
be in cocifMmoent or 4ft forge; a Turtledove in a cage, or a Cuckoo brought up by
rtsett by dashing its head against the roof o f its prison at the period when its
ciimes; and, I believe, the Woodcocks which are bred in England and Scotland
lieir native woods, as the Snipes do the fells, and to proceed southward when the
prqper season arrives, like those whose breeding-quarters lie further north. All our native-bred birds,
however, may not leave the British islands; and I think it probable that the flights which appear
yearly in Cornwall and the Scilly Islands may be a portion o f them. These flights, which are said to
arrive from the east, might go out to sea from our south coast and, if they encounter adverse winds,
double hack upon Cornwall and Scilly. I f this be not the case, I cannot account for their occurrence a t the
e;«rly period at which they are said to arrive. Mr. Rodd states that they make their first appearance in the
neighbourhood o f the Land’s End about the second week of October, and the first flights usually take
Ipfeee with a south-east wind; and Mr. Augustus Smith has furnished me with a precisely similar account
tfif the arrival o f the bird on the Scilly Islands.
1 not recapitulate the hundreds o f recorded instances o f the bird’s breeding in England, Scotland,
(and ; but in confirmation o f the fact I may state that I have myself several times received young birds
from t'--' ■ ; ' ' : in the counties of-Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent, as near to London as Caen Wood, at
ftighgate, *3* «fee north, and Streatham Common on the south. The Marquis Camden tells me that at least
a dozen ne.v mw« been found during a single season in his woods in Sussex.
The late Mr. John states, in his ‘ Tour in Sutberlandshire,’th at “ the Woodcock breeds every season in
the north o f Seoifewl, not mdy in the large fir-plantations, but also in the smaller patch.es o f birch &c.
which fringe the ■ ■ ■ - o f kwwv o f the most northern lakes. That those bred in the country migrate,
I have no doubt, a
frosts o f winter. As I have sees ibeir
that the Woodcock breeds on
Mr. Atholl MacGregor writes m»
Scotland, says “ that all the under
o f them states that between thirty and i
of April and May 1864, and that the
•••■ >l-k on the 23rd o f Ju ly he flushed thr
three times in the summer, he having si
Wheo the month of August or Septenibe
of d c country/’
all his - lably disappear for two o r three months between summer and the first
ave iheir nests a t all times from March to August, it is natural to suppose
more once in the season/’
r. White, the head keeper on Lord Mansfield’s estate in
t&y to Woodcocks breeding in every wood, and that one
ined in the covers under his charge during the months
atnber of them bred. Mr. White adds that in a short
and that bis own impression is that they hreedgUvo or
i in the same stage o f plumage both in May and August,
»any o f the birds leave; but he thinks they do not go out