I have had on three occasions the good fortune to see the woodcock in the act of carrying her young. On the first occasion the bird rose from my feet one day in the month of June, in a thick coppice cover in Argyllshire, and flew with her strange burden carried between her thighs for about 30 yards, in the manner well described in a note in Mr. Gray's Birds of the West of Scotland. On following her she again rose, still carrying the young one, and flew into some thick cover. On this and the next occasion, which was in Perthshire, the birds uttered no cry; but the last time I witnessed this curious habit, which was on the 5th of May last, the bird made the peculiar cry alluded to in the note in Mr. Gray's work. On this occasion I could observe the bird more distinctly, as it was in an old oak cover, with very little underwood, where I discovered her. On rising she flew from 35 to 40 yards, calling as above mentioned, and then, alighting among some grass, seemed to flutter along, still retaining hold of the chick. On raising her again, the same maneuver was repeated, only that the distance flown each time was greater, but always in the segment of a circle, as if she were unwilling to leave the rest of the brood. On returning to the spot where she rose at first, I discovered one of these, which was more than half grown, the quill feathers being well formed, and must altogether have formed rather a heavy burden. On taking it up, it uttered a cry, which was at once responded to by the parent bird, although the latter did not again take to wing from the bushes into which it had ultimately flown.
Abel Chapman (1924) writes:
For many years a question used to be discussed as to woodcocks carrying their young; but the matter never specially interested me, until, on August 3, 1915, I happened to see it with my own eyes. This was in Houxty wood, and since then I have witnessed the performance on many occasions. During the war this wood was largely felled for military purposes and the area thus cleared, and subsequently replanted, has become a specially favored resort of our long-billed friends. The annexed sketch, made there on June 15, 1920, shows exactly how the feat is accomplished. That particular woodcock rose on the hillside a trifle above me, slowly flapping by close in front, and looking back at me over her shoulder. What first struck my attention was the curiously depressed tail, held almost vertical; then the mother's feet, hanging down below; finally the youngster, with its very short beak, pressed between its parent's thighs. Since then I have witnessed many similar exhibitions; indeed, in summer they are almost daily on view.
Plumages.—The downy young of the European woodcock is thus described in Witherby's (1920) Handbook:
Forehead and broad band over eye to nape light ochraceous buff, a russet median streak from base of upper mandible to crown; crown russet intermixed with light ochraceous buff, centre of nape russet, sides light ochraceous buff; an irregular and interrupted russet band from nape to uropygial tuft, another across wing; rest of upper parts and sides of body with irregular bands and patches of ochraceous buff and russet; from base of upper mandible to eye a broad black-brown streak; a small patch of same behind eye; a patch of russet on lower throat; rest of under parts light ochraceous buff.
The juvenal plumage is therein fully described. It is much like the adult, differing only in minor details, but can easily be recognized by the looser or softer structure of the feathers. Practically all of this plumage, except the primaries and secondaries, is replaced in the fall by the first winter plumage, which is indistinguishable from the adult. Adults have a complete postnuptial molt from July to December and a partial prenuptial molt, involving nearly everything but the wings, from February to May.
Food.—Mr. Gordon (1915) refers to the feeding habits of the woodcock as follows:
It feeds mainly by night on wet, boggy ground, and eats an enormous quantity of worms; indeed, it may swallow almost its own weight of food in the course of a single day. When the blackberries have ripened the woodcock betake themselves to the hillsides and consume great quantities of the fruit.
Mr. Slater (1898) says:
I have occasionally flushed woodcocks at night from wet rushy fields, where they were doubtless probing the ground for worms and larvae, occasionally turning over the droppings of cattle for concealed beetles. But they also feed in woods to a certain extent, turning the dead leaves over to find insects, etc. The accounts of the extent of their appetites and of the amount of worms, etc., which they will put away at a sitting are surprising. These they find in the earth with their bills, which are modified into a very delicate organ of touch.
If the horny epidermis be removed, a number of small pits of a hexagonal shape will be seen in the bone at the end of the bill, remotely suggesting an incipient honey comb. In each one of these pits a minute fibril of the olfactory nerve has its termination, and by this means, when the bill is thrust into the soft, wet soil, the slightest wriggle of the least living creature is instantly telegraphed to the woodcock's sensibilities.