2 22 WOODCOCK. 



The last season (1884) was a remarkable one generally through- 

 out the county, and it is very many years since the game-shops in 

 Hereford have been so well supplied. 



Woodcocks lie quiet by day, and at nightfall visit their feeding 



grounds. 



In doubtful day the Woodcock flies. 



Gat. 



A narrow dip in the hills, or the tracts and glades in the woods 

 through which the birds pass, are often called " cockshoots." There 

 are several in the county, where from time immemorial. Woodcocks 

 have been waylaid while flying through, by sportsmen with their guns 

 or nets. In the dip of the hill above Stoke Edith, two permanent 

 poles were erected, and at the proper season a fine net was hung 

 across from one to the other. When struck by the bird flying, 

 it was drawn together by the concealed fowler. Mr. Cook thinks 

 these poles were first put up about sixty years ago. They were not 

 long in use, since they were removed about forty years since. They 

 probably did not pay. Mr. Cook remembers three Woodcocks being 

 taken one night, and thinks this was the greatest catch ever made. 



Certain localities in woods have a peculiar charm for the 

 Woodcock, as is well-known to sportsmen ; 



Oft at this season, near an oozy spring 

 O'erhung by alder boughs, the Woodcock haunts. 



Grahame — British Georgics. 



If one bird is shot, another will be found on the same spot at the next 

 visit, if there are any in the neighbourhood. By day they are fond of 

 reposing in the dry bottoms of brake or rushes, often preferring, as 

 Sir Humphrey Davy pointed out, the shade of a laurel or holly bush. 



There are two sounds uttered by the Woodcock; one, a kind 

 of muffled clack, which they give sometimes when they are flushed ; 

 and the other, a sort of low whistle uttered at flight-time on spring 

 evenings. 



The number of Woodcocks that now remain to breed in this 

 country is believed to exceed very largely that of former years. 

 Yarrell attributes this fact to "the increase of plantations, especially 



