WOODCOCK. 121 



sound, as the bird rises, resembles to my ears the sharp ripping 

 of stiff paper ; when on ihe ridge at Spurn on the night when 

 the Woodcock arrived I heard every few yards this sound, and 

 in the lighthouse beam caught sight of ghostly birds skimming 

 into the darkness. The flight varies ; it is swift and dodging 

 when the bird is scared, or when, in spring, the males are 

 " rod'mg " as the nuptial sport is called. But it can be slow, 

 uncertain, and owl-like as the birds return from their nocturnal 

 feast to the shelter of the wood. The bill is carried pointed 

 downwards. At times the speed is great, for on migration 

 a bird, some years ago, crashed through the lantern at the 

 Flamborough light. 



A few immigrants reach the east coast in September, but the 

 biggest flights are ia October and November, and hard or 

 rough weather abroad brings the laggards later. In winter 

 westward movements to Ireland are common. At dusk the 

 bird leaves the wood, usually by some well-used glade, to feed 

 in the marshes or muddy ditches, and even in hard weather 

 finds some soft spot in which to push its sensitive bill to feel for 

 worms, its main food. It has been said that the Woodcock 

 stamps to bring worms to the surface, and the statement has 

 been freely copied ; it is not easy to see how a nocturnal bird 

 feeds. It does, however, turn its probe from side to side, and 

 can evidently tell when it touches its victim, which is then 

 gripped by the curiously prehensile portion of the upper mandible 

 and dragged out. I do not believe that when its head is turned 

 sideways it is listening for the sound of worm movement ; 

 the lateral position of the eyes of many birds causes them to 

 turn the head when they concentrate upon one spot. Doubt- 

 less the Woodcock has good hearing ; though exactly why the 

 position of its ear, which is in front of and below the level of the 

 eye, differs from the normal has never been discovered. In 

 autumn the "Cock "is a silent bird, and often it rises without 

 a sound ; Seebohm says that it will, at times, utter a note like 



