WOODCOCK. 297 
its upward curling is suggestive of that most sensitive 
organ of touch, the proboscis of an Elephant.* Their 
food consists chiefly of worms, of which they consume 
immense quantities, and, as with the snipe, the “ borings 
may be frequently detected in their moist feeding 
grounds. In the breeding season the woodcock utters 
a curious squeaking note when taking its evening 
flight, but in the autumn and winter it but rarely 
emits any cry when flushed by the sportsman, though 
the peculiar noise made by the bird (probably with its 
wings) in rising, when once heard is never to be 
forgotten. Mr. S. Bligh informs me that he once 
came upon a woodcock so suddenly at Framingham, 
near Norwich, that, on rising, it uttered a peculiarly 
shrill ery of alarm. 
The following curious fact also with regard to this 
species which I have not elsewhere met with, is recorded 
by Mr. Gould, on the authority of Captain Murray 
Aynsley. That gentleman, when shooting in the coverts 
at Alnwick, in Northumberland, observed a woodcock 
pitch down within eight yards of him on the opposite 
side of a fence where the ground was bare, with the 
exception of a few leaves. These the bird, on alighting, 
threw over its back with its beak, squatting close to the 
ground all the time, and was more than half covered 
when the beaters came up; nor did it attempt to rise 
until flushed by a dog. 
Of course no -history of the woodcock in Norfolk 
would be deemed complete without some reference to 
the memorable exploit of Sir Francis Chantrey, in killing 
two birds at one shot, when shooting at Holkham; for, 
although this feat has been accomplished by other 
sportsmen, the artistic celebrity of the performer, and 
the monument erected by himself to the memory of his 
* The voluntary upward movement of the upper mandible in 
the woodcock is described at some length, and illustrated by a 
wood epee in Dr. Hoffman’s monograph above mentioned. 
Q 
