The late Mr. Thompson, after recording in bis ‘ Natural History of Ireland’ numerous instances of the
«In the years 1847, 1848, and 1849, Woodcocks bred abundantly

birds breeding in that country, remarks,
sts having been seen each year; and they have now become so

in Tollymore Park, not less than thirty ne
common-place as to be comparatively but little noticed.”

With all this testimony as to the bird’s breeding in various parts of the British Islands, does it not become
necessary that we should bestow upon it all the protection in our power ? and should not the Legislature
lend its aid towards this end? Are we not all alike interested in the preservation of so fine a bird ? Would
it not be more rational to do so than to pay so much attention to the introduction of foreign species, with a
view to their acclimatization, with far less likelihood of any good result? Nay, are we not ‘killing the
goose that lays the golden egg ” when every scamp who can borrow a gun is permitted to shoot these birds
in their evening flights, or ‘‘ roadings,” during the months of March and April? I sincerely trust that, if
this bird be not hereafter reckoned among the species designated game, it may be deemed advisable to pass
a law inflicting a heavy penalty for every Woodcock killed between the Ist of February and the 12th of
August. Were ordinary protection afforded to the bird, I see no reason why it should not become vastly
more numerous than it is at present. Every sportsman is aware that during the last fortnight in January
the Woodcocks are found in pairs—mated in fact for the coming task of reproduction—that its skin is then
scurfy, its flesh strong, very inferior in flavour, and comparatively unfit for the table.

I now come to a part of the history of the Woodcock, which has been a stumbling block to all sportsmen
and ornithologists—whether there be any outward difference in the plumage by which the sexes may with
certainty be determined, and why so much variation occurs in their size, weight, and measurements.
To these points I have paid much attention during a long life, and with a view to their elucidation have
carefully examined hundreds of examples killed by others, as well as those that have fallen to my own gun,
which have not been few. Many of these I have dissected, measured, and weighed the moment after they
were killed ; and I must admit that at the end of a day’s shooting I am still unable to say with certainty, from
their size or plumage, which are males and which females: this partly arises from the circumstance of there
being two distinct races frequently intermingled in the same coverts. Such races occur among many of our
birds, but have no specific value. During their vernal migration these races generally keep separate from
each other, and some flights will be composed of a small red race, while others will be exclusively large
dark-grey birds. In the case of the common Snipe, I have ascertained that the male is undoubtedly the
larger bird; and if there be any difference between the sexes of the Woodcock, I believe it will be the same as in
that bird; at the same time I must remark that dissection has proved that many of the large and long-billed
birds are females. Some sportsmen assert that they can distinguish the sexes by an examination of the
outer primary, and affirm that those birds which have the external margin of that feather plain or devoid of
tooth-like markings are males, and those in which they exist are females. But they are absent in both sexes
of very old birds; for I have wings of females in my collection in which the outer margin of the first
primary is totally devoid of the toothed character. When the young Woodcock assumes his first primaries,
which he does at the age of two or three weeks, the outer feather is strongly marked; as he grows older
this feature gradually disappears ; and I have frequently seen specimens with the outer primary toothed for
half its length, and the other part plain.

Some English counties are less adapted to the habits of the Woodcock than others ; and their continu-
ance in those best suited to them depends greatly upon the non-disturbance of the coverts in which they
have settled themselves, from the date of their arrival in November to the end of the shooting-season.
Inclement and frosty weather will induce the birds to remove from one locality to another, and even to
quit a district; but they will again return at the first favourable opportunity. In the charming park at
Chillingham in Northumberland, Woodcocks are sufficiently numerous in the early part of the season to
satisfy its noble and excellent owner ; I believe, however, the bags are never very extraordinary ; still thirty
or forty Cocks may sometimes be laid upon the grass at the end of a November day’s shooting ; at least,
so I was told by the Earl of Tankerville during a pleasant visit I paid to his border Castle. The namber
of Cocks at Hawkstone varies considerably, twenty or thirty being generally the result of a day’s sport when
the covers are shot. To this beautiful seat I have for the last thirty years been most kindly favoured
with an invitation, to shoot over some of the best beats ; and I would here express my obligations to Lord
Hill for his unvaried kindness. As an evidence that Norfolk, so abundantly supplied with game, is not
wanting in coverts favourable to the Woodcock, I shall quote a line from the ‘ Zoologist,’ in which it is
stated, that in Lord Hastings’s woods at Melton Constable, near Holt, in the first week of December 1852,
30 and 33 were respectively killed on two successive days, and 93 on the third, in the Great Wood in the
adjoining parish of Swanton Novers, and at least 110 might have been killed if other game had been
disregarded. I believe it will be conceded that from this county, through the eastern and southern portions
of England, the Woodcock becomes less numerous, and it is not until we reach the western counties of

Devonshire and Cornwall that we again meet with it in any great abundance. In these humid and com-

paratively warm districts the Woodcocks find a congenial winter home; for there the springs are always