36 THe Woopcock. 
The woodcock is found in Eastern Russia and Siberia, up 
to 60 degrees N. latitude, in Western Russia to 65 degrees N. 
latitude, and in Norway and Sweden up to the Arctic Circle. 
The highlands of Southern Europe, the Caucasus, Himalayas, 
Japan, and Eastern Siberia know it as a nesting bird, and in 
winter it visits China, Burma and India and the countries of 
the Mediterranean. Though never recorded from Iceland or 
South Greenland, occasional stragglers have reached North 
America. 
It has been stated that nine-tenths of the total number of 
woodcock killed annually in Great Britain are probably migrants 
from Northern and Western Europe. 
Migration takes place by night, the birds flying preferably 
upwind, and, it is believed, at a great height and speed. They 
travel singly or in pairs, but, of course, in large companies. 
Migratory birds of less nocturnal habits than the woodcock 
have been timed when performing this seasonal movement; and 
as the grey crow has been computed to travel at the rate of one 
hundred miles an hour, the suggestion does not seem unreason- 
able that the woodcock should get up a pace of one hundred 
and fifty miles an hour when migrating similarly. The observa- 
tions by Herr Gatke concerning migratory woodcock alighting 
on Heligoland are interesting. He states that they are more 
numerous in the autumn migration, particularly after a stiff 
north-eastern breeze. On October 28th, 1823, upwards of 1100 
were killed; and one old gunner, Hans Prohl, killed 99 with a 
gun made from an old Dutch infantry musket. As many as 
four at one shot have been killed there, but that, of course, was 
not at flying birds. The local Heligoland gunners are much 
attracted by the arrival of these birds, and use weighted neis. 
for their capture. These nets are from 36 to 72 feet long, 
about 24 feet high, and of a 24-inch mesh. An old custom 
prevailed that the “eerst snaap’’ was handed over to the 
Governor of the island, who paid a dollar to the sportsman who 
had been lucky enough to obtain the first ’cock. ‘The killing of 
so many as 1100 woodcock in one day would seem almost in- 
credible, but we must remember that migratory birds pitch on 
the island of Helligoland in actual masses. Thus, we read in 
Rudolph Rosenstock’s translation (p. 58) of Herr Gitke’s work, 
that.no less than 1500 larks were caught in the space of but 
