70 BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



others proved to be migratory. So far these records 

 show no very definite direction of migration, many birds 

 going to Ireland, some to the south of England and the 

 north of France, and others going north well into Scot- 

 land ! Similar results have been got more recently in 

 Tyrone. Some Woodcocks migrated in north-easterly and 

 south-easterly directions — actually opposite to some of the 

 Northumberland birds — while many proved to be resi- 

 dent. More records of this sort are needed fully to 

 elucidate the matter. 



The Woodcock is nocturnal in its habits to a great extent, 

 and in the breeding season there is a remarkable crepuscular 

 love-flight. From the numerous published descriptions, 

 differing somewhat in various details, we select that of the 

 late Professor Alfred Newton in his famous Dictionary of 

 Birds : ' During this season the male Woodcock performs at 

 twilight flights of a remarkable kind, repeating evening after 

 evening (and it is believed at dawn also) precisely the same 

 course, generally describing a triangle, the sides of which 

 may be a quarter of a mile long or more. On these occasions 

 the bird''s appearance on the wing is quite unlike that which 

 it presents when hurriedly flying after being flushed, and 

 though its speed is great the beats of the wings are steady 

 and slow. At intervals an extraordinary sound is produced, 

 whether from the throat of the bird, as is commonly averred, 

 or from the plumage is uncertain. To the present writer 

 the sound seems to defy description, though some hearers 

 have tried to syllable it. This characteristic flight is in 

 some parts of England called " roading," * and the track taken 

 by the bird a " cock-road."" In England in former times 

 advantage was taken of this habit to catch the simple per- 



* Also 'roding' in East Anglia and elsewhere, and variously connected 

 with the English road, the French rothr (to rove or wander), and the 

 Scandinavian rode ('an open space in a wood'). 



