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MONG several curious habits of the woodcock, described by the editor of the Zoologist, its practice of carrying its young is perhaps the most interesting. The testimony of many competent witnesses is cited to corroborate the statement. The late L. Lloyd, in his “Scandinavian Adventures,” wrote, “If, in shooting, you meet with a brood of woodcocks, and the young ones cannot fly, the old bird takes them separately between her feet, and flies from the dogs with a moaning cry.”

The same author makes a similar statement in another work, this habit of the woodcock having been observed by a friend.

One of the brothers Stuart gives, in “Lays of the Deer Forest,” a graphic account of the performance. He says, “As the nests are laid on dry ground, and often at a distance from moisture, in the latter case, as soon as the young are hatched, the old bird will sometimes carry them in her claws to the nearest spring or green strip. In the same manner, when in danger, she will rescue those which she can lift; of this we have frequent opportunities for observation in Tarnaway. Various times when the hounds, in beating the ground, have come upon a brood, we have seen the old bird rise with the young one in her claws and carry it fifty or a hundred yards away.”