WOODCOCK 269 
Flight.—Sportsmen who reside in the districts it frequents 
are familar with the aérial movements of this highly prized 
game-bird. When evicted by dogs or beaters from its 
sleeping-quarters in the quiet glade, it springs into the air 
impetuously, and in most cases “disappears among the trees 
with surprising speed, or pitches in some neighbouring 
herbage outside. But if undisturbed during the day it does 
not quit the wood until dusk. 
The Woodcock is very conservative in its movements 
on the wing; it usually pursues the same route to and from 
its feeding-grounds during an entire season. I have seen 
several of these birds pass along the outskirts of a wood 
towards a swamp, and have noticed, in the fading twilight, 
their resemblance to owls in their slow, buoyant, flapping 
flight, though sportive whirling manceuvres are also indulged 
in at dusk. Marshy, low-lying eround is much resorted to, 
and there seems to be little doubt that salt-water slob-lands 
are occasionally visited. In severe frost, as before men- 
tioned, Woodcocks undoubtedly appear near the sea; when 
unable to probe the frozen ground for worms, they tem- 
porarily become coast- frequenters, and marine shell-fish may 
be found in their stomachs. In the ‘ Fowler in Ireland,’ Sir 
R. Payne-Gallwey writes: ‘‘at break of day, in a frost, I 
have shot Cock amongst rocks and seaweed on the beach, 
especially at high water, when it would seein they were 
driven shoreward by the rising tide.”’ 
If the season be mild the Woodcock lurks about the open 
country wherever sufficient cover is available, and being a 
strong and sturdy bird, it keeps in good condition even in 
frost and snow; it has the good sense to shift its sleeping- 
quarters according to the severity of the weather, which no 
doubt tends to keep it sleek and plump. Migration, how- 
ever, appears at times to exhaust it, for emaciated birds 
have been captured with the hand about sandhills and 
drains on the sea-coast. 
Food.—'The food, consisting mainly of worms and 
insects, 1s easily procurable while the weather is mild, and 
even when the fresh-water marshes and rivulets are frost- 
&e., that it might easily pass unnoticed, were it not for its great black 
eyes, which gazed anxiously at the intruder on its preserves. Hiding 
behind a tree I remained motionless, and presently saw the bird pace 
slowly about and (as far as the light permitted me to judge) pick among 
the dead foliage for food. 
