86 THE WOODCOCKVS VOYAGE 



place had been reached. They hid till night ; 

 then they rose again and resumed their flight 

 beneath the starry vault. 



No sound of earth reached the high region 

 where they moved ; their own faint wing-beats 

 alone broke the silence through which hour after 

 hour the wedge-shaped line pressed on till the 

 vast silvery ocean that had lain outspread beneath 

 them gave place to a sombre plain relieved only 

 by the glow-worm light emitted by town and 

 city far below. 



Soon as remembered haunts were reached 

 the little flock began to break up : now one, now 

 two, and after a long interval, four birds for- 

 sook the line ; others followed, so that when a 

 second ocean showed on either side the narrow- 

 ing land, only three remained. But the little 

 remnant still sped on, nearer and nearer to their 

 destination at the end of the promontory. Two 

 dropped into Golden Valley, and the remaining 

 woodcock reached Carn Brea alone. Little 

 wonder, then, that he was very tired ; yet so 

 soon did he recover from his fatigue that when 

 dusk fell he rose without an effort, and, skim- 

 ming the slope, passed over Brea Farm and the 

 now empty turnip-field to the boggy feeding- 

 ground beyond. 



Daybreak found hare and woodcock back in 



