AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 45 



is covered with short green moss, are, or I fear I 

 should say were, the best-loved diurnal haunts of 

 the Woodcock, especially in wet weather. It is, in 

 my experience, rare to find a Woodcock in thick 

 grassy or sedgy covert ; the fact is that although the 

 bird likes good shelter from rain, wind, and perhaps 

 from the sun's rays overhead, he also likes to have 

 a clear and open view around him, and, in common 

 with all nocturnal feeders, the option of sunning 

 himself occasionally ; for these reasons an isolated 

 evergreen such as a young spruce or other thick 

 conifer, a holly bush, a clump of rhododendron, 

 laurel, box, &c. is likely to shelter a cock, but Wood- 

 cocks, do not, I think, like masses of evergreen 

 shrubs, unless in certain exceptional circumstances. 

 The predilection of our bird for particular spots, and 

 even for particular bushes, is well known to most 

 sportsmen. It is a common thing for a gamekeeper 

 to say "if there is a Woodcock in the country he 

 should be in such a quarter of such a wood," and in 

 the great majority of instances I have found these 

 prophecies verified by events. 



In the above remarks with regard to the haunts of 

 the Woodcock I have been referring almost entirely 

 to my own experiences in Northamptonshire, a 

 county which is, as I have shown, by no means 

 especially favoured by these migrants. For details 

 as to large bags of Woodcocks in England and 

 Ireland I must refer my readers to Yarrell, and to a 

 most interesting work by Sir R. Payne-Gallwey, en- 

 titled ' The Wild-fowler in Ireland.' All the evidence 

 adduced in these and many other works goes to 

 support my theory of the westward inclination of the 

 Woodcock. A very few instances of the occurrence 



