Any of several wading birds in the genus Scolopax, of the family Scolopacidae, characterised by a long slender bill and cryptic brown and blackish plumage.
If I loved you not, I would laugh at you, and see you / Run your neck into the noose, and cry, "A woodcock!"
1838, Nathan Drake, Belletristical Works (volume 1, page 215)
"Now will that silly woodcock make such a report of what I have said to his chosen friend," observed Sir Robert to his companion when my Lord Cobham was out of hearing(..)