This whole operation was performed in an instant, and the action of the woodcock was so equal and imperceptible that it seemed doing nothing; it never missed its aim; for this reason, and because it never plunged its bill beyond the orifice of the nostrils, it was concluded that the bird was directed to its food by smell." There is one very interesting point in the natural history of the woodcock which I must not forget to mention. The old birds sometimes carry their little ones from the place where they are hatched down to soft marshy places to feed on the worms and insect larvae found there; they take them in the evening and return with them in the morning. "But how do they carry them?" asked May. Some observers have said they are carried in the claws, but Mr. St. John maintains that the little birds are clasped tightly between the thighs. "Is it not a difficult thing to tell the difference between the male and female woodcock?" asked Willy. Yes, I do not think it is possible in every case to tell the difference; the male bird is smaller than the female of the same age, and there are slight differences in the colour of the plumage, but as you may meet with birds of different ages, and as woodcocks are much subject to variation of plumage, it is difficult to pronounce whether this woodcock is a male and that a female. "Oh, papa, what are these ring-marks on the end of this bit of timber upon which we are sitting?" said Willy. These rings or zones represent the various growths made every year by the tree when it was growing, each zone being the produce of one year. As the wood ceases to grow for some months in the winter, a distinction in appearance between the last wood of a former and the first wood of the succeeding year is occasioned; so that, in our own country at least, the age of a tree can be ascertained within some limit by counting the number of zones; there is, however, great difference in the size of the same species of trees, even of the same age, and great difference too in the width of the zones; indeed, you can see this in the case of the wood we have been sitting upon. See how the zones differ, how broad some are, how narrow are others; nay, even in one year you see how the zone varies. The subject of the growth of trees is very interesting, and I would advise you, when you get older, to pay some attention to it.