Woodcock | |
---|---|
American woodcock | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Charadriiformes |
Family: | Scolopacidae |
Genus: | Scolopax Linnaeus, 1758 |
Type species | |
Scolopax rusticola Linnaeus, 1758
| |
Diversity | |
8 living species |
The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of sandpipers in the genus Scolopax. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders.[1] The English name is first recorded in about 1050.[2] According to the Harleian Miscellany, a group of woodcocks is called a "fall".[3]