WOODCOCK. 283 



are tlie result of repeated visits to the most likely 

 spots, between October and March.. By the same 

 means, at Hempstead, near Holt, a very favourite resort 

 in this county, from one hundred to one hundred and 

 fifty cocks have been killed in one year, and yet 

 comparatively few in other seasons, when the same 

 coverts have been entered only for battue purposes. 

 In such woods, also, the sportsman, who walks with 

 the beaters and takes his chance in the "high fell" 

 will bag more cocks to his own gun, if a good " snap '* 

 shot, than all the rest of the party, though posted 

 in convenient drives or other openings. 



With the woodcock also, as with the snipe, there 

 seems to be a strange partiality for certain localities. 

 There are few sportsmen who cannot re-call some 

 favoured spot where, year after year, a woodcock was 

 to be found in due season, and whose place, if killed, was 

 almost sure to be taken by another. Mr. J. H. Gurney 

 tells me that he remembers, many years ago, when the 

 late Rev. Robert Hankinson occupied Bilney Hall, near 

 Lynn, being told that there was a remarkable place of 

 this kind on the grounds attached to that house. The 

 attraction in such cases being, no doubt, some peculiar 

 adaptability of the aspect, soil, and leafy shelter."^ 



Some years are certainly noticeable for the scarcity 

 of woodcocks as others for their abundance ; but of the 

 latter, the most remarkable of late have been the 

 autumns of 1852 and 1858, and the last three or four 

 seasons have been all more or less favourable. In 

 the memorable "flood year" (1852), amongst other 



* Sir Humpkrey 'D&yj {" Salmonia," p. 332, 2nd edit.) remarks, 

 " A laurel or a holly bush is a favourite place for their repose : 

 the thick varnished leaves of these trees prevent the radiation of 

 heat from the soil, and they are less affected by the refrigerating 

 influence of a clear sky ; so that they afford a warm seat for the 

 woodcock." 

 2o2 



