but the, absence of cover forms no insuperable bar, for Saxby
knew it to breed annually on the hill-side at Hermanness,
the most northern point of the most northern of the Shetland
Islands. In Ireland a similar increase has taken place Ace
Thompson in 1843 called attention to’tbe nidification of this
bird from the year 1835 onwards in the woods of Tullamore
•Park, county Down. Lord Clermont writes that at Ravens-
dale Park, on the borders of Louth and Armagh, and in the
neighbouring Narrow-water Woods, county Down, above
twenty nests are sometimes found in a season by the keepers
when looking for pheasants’ eggs, and the birds are frequently
seen flying to and from their feeding-places.
’ Woodcocks are very early, breeders, and the date of March
1st, the commencement of close-time, is hot at all too early
for their protection. St. John, in his ‘Wild Sports in the
Highlands ’ (p. 220), states that jte had three eggs brought
hiin on 9th March, 1846, and a nearly full-grown* young
one H the Second week of April, 1844. In 1836/ Mr.
Blyth saw-two young Woodcocks on the 20th of April; On
the 22nd of April, -1838,- Mr. Gould exhibited at the Zoological
Society two young Woodcocks, .apparently three weeks
old; and the Author had in his collection a' young Woodcock
five, or six weeks old,* which he bought on the 23rd of April,
1822, in the market at Orleans. The average time ^fOr the
commencement of incubation may, however, be taken as the
end of March and beginning of April. The -nest ds little
more than a hollow in the dry oak or dern deaves/dn ’ some
warm sheltered situation, but'v#itbout any attempt atMgSin-
cealment in the undergrowth, and the eggs-, usually four in
number; are but slightly pyriform, of a pale yellb wish-white:
the larger end 'blotched and spotted with’ -ash-grey and two
shades Of 'reddish-yellow brown measure about l ’f5
by l'-3dnM
Few subjects have been more discussed than that of the
manner in which the Woodcock carries «its youngs -Seopoli,
writing in 1769, says, “ pullos rostfo •p@rt(ib^;fugien&"" db
Jiosie,” upon which Gilbert White remarks that “‘the long
unwieldy bill of ;the. Woodcock, is perhaps, the worst adapted
of any among the winged creation for such a feat of natural
affection.” It is new well known that Scopoli was mistaken
as:to the yoùng being carried in or by the bill, but it will' be
seen that there is evidence that the bill is .not without employment
in the act. A number of observers have stated
that the chick is carried in the claws. Descriptions of this
mode of conveyance will be', found in the late Mr. Lloyd’s
J Field Sports of the North of Europe ’ and other works.
The most detailed account is, however, that given by ’the
brothers Stuart in the notes to‘ ‘ LâÿsJof the Deer Forest,’
vol. ifé p. 259, from which the following is extracted:-*^
“-Various times when the hounds, in beating the ground,
have come upon a brood, we have- seen the old bird
rise with a young one i s her claws, and carry it fifty or
a hundred yards, away ; and if followed to the place where
she pitched, she has repeated the transportation until too
much harassed. One morning, while sitting on a grey
Stone, I saw a dark eye which was fixed upon miné from the
bed of dead leaves before me, when suddenly the little brown
head of a young "Woodcock peeped out from the feathers of
the old one’s breast, uttering that plaintive cry for which
language has no sign. There were two more young Woodcocks,
and to .rèlieve thevanxiety of thé madré", I left her.
Near the -placé where I found her, there was a soft green
stripe, such- as Woodcoeks low/ I had no doubt that the
family would be theré next -day ; and, as I passed near, I
•turned aside to see what they wére doing. 'UpffnTa dry bank,
half.vlway down the brae, I almost stumbled ' over -a bird
which rosé'at mÿ'jfeet^and as it darted through the trees, I
saw that it had something in its >claws, andy at the same
time, I heard the plaintivercry \óf- little Woodcocks just
under my feet.- I looked down, 'there.1 were -two'j and I
thought a hawk had carried off: the third, and, perhaps,
killed the-mother. This*; however; I found; on following
the bird, was the old Woodcock; which being flushed again
suddenly,, after a low flight of Only a few yards, dropped
what it was carrying,, her own young Woodcock;-* I TgaVe
her a little time to find him, which was not difficult, as he