The Birds of Pembrokeshire. gt 
or crossed us above them. Woodcock shooting with a party in 
large alder covers is dangerous work, and a rash shot might 
speedily afford employment for the doctors. We have enjoyed 
good sport in the covers of Sealyham, Cuffern, Tregwynt, in the 
woods near the Tufton Arms, &c., &c., and in our own small 
covers at Stone Hall there would frequently be a good show of 
Cocks, when a passing flight would drop in, and we have 
flushed as many as 50 of a morning. We often had Cocks in 
the kitchen garden, and among the rhododendrons and laurels 
on the lawn. The covers at Slebech are noted for Woodcocks, 
and in former years 60 would be bagged there in a day’s shoot. 
In mild and wet weather the Cocks resort to the high furze on 
hill-sides, and in such places we have found them in con- 
siderable numbers. In snows, and in hard black frosts, they 
leave the covers for the coast. In the severe winter of 1880 
great numbers were shot at St. David’s. A friend tells us that 
he then found one of the hotels there full of Woodcocks, and 
sportsmen would go out and return in a couple of hours with 
their pockets full. All the little furzy combes running down 
towards the sea were thronged with them, and there was one 
little spot close to the stream which runs at the back of the old 
Cathedral where directly a Cock was shot another came and took 
its place, and this went on throughout the day. In the beautiful 
covers at Tregwynt which face the sea over 40 Cocks have 
been killed in a day during a deep snow. We have flushed 
numbers of Cocks some seasons up to the end of March, when 
we have been fishing the Cleddy, and working our way through 
covers bordering the stream, and as the Woodcock nests early 
in the year we felt convinced that some of these late birds must 
remain in the county to breed. We have seen a very pretty 
variety that was shot in the south of the county, that had its 
back and shoulders thickly mottled with small patches of white. 
Sir Hugh Owen has told us that he has shot “ small dark Cocks 
of only 7 ozs.” Many sportsmen look upon these extra small 
birds as a distinct species, asserting that when they are flushed 
they dart off at once, like a Snipe ; but Cocks vary much in size 
