WOODCOCK 283 



travelled woodcock soon lies dead at his feet. He knows, 

 too, that he is a-hungry on his arrival, and loves the turnip- 

 field, where the luscious grubs and worms grow fat and 

 juicy, and thither the gunner goes " afore he takes ter the 

 woods." But when he does fly, as he does at the flighting 

 hour, the gunner knows him as he comes along in the grow- 

 ing winter dusk over the reeds ; for he flies about five yards 

 above the reed, taking a bee-line, and flying swiftly — some- 

 thing like a peewit, though they turn about a little as they 

 approach a slad, where they alight to sup, but not so 

 with the woodcock, he travels straight ahead, unless he be 

 knocked over by the alert gunner, who stands in his grey 

 punt in the shaking reeds. 



And through the dark and dreary winter he is scarce 

 along the coast. In hard winters he usually disappears ; 

 but upon all occasions he is rare in winter, one gunner 

 considering five a good number to bag in winter. But his 

 scarcity may be due to his skulking habits by day, for he 

 is really a night-feeder, working his wings and boring like a 

 snipe into soft marshes, whither he flights at dusk from the 

 plantings where he dreams the day away. 



And when the trees are bright with bursting buds, he 

 begins his return journey, and his hoarse snipe-like voice 

 is heard as he falls a victim to the gunner, many of whom 

 declare he nests about the district in osier carrs; but as 

 they never find his eggs, this may be doubted. They think 

 so, because they often find the females with well-developed 

 eggs — "full of eggs," as they express it. But so are many 

 of the pochards that are shot. Yet a pochard's nest would 

 be a "great find." 



Truth to tell, the eggs seem to be well advanced in many 

 birds at the time of migration, and perhaps this is the 

 great stirring in their nature which impels them to seek a 

 more congenial clime, where there will be plenty of food for 

 their young. 



And so, like many another bird, we get glimpses only of 



