6 WOODCOCK. 
1796. The Rev. Gilbert White too, mentions that a gentleman 
at Scilly shot twenty-nine couple in one diy. 
A Woodcock has been seen, at Newnham, in Gloucestershire, 
to perch on an oak tree. As the name implies, they frequent 
woods, but seem to prefer those in which the trees are of 
young growth, and especially, it is said, such as have a north- 
east aspect, on account of their being less exposed to the 
glare of day. 
The flight of the Woodcock has been estimated to be at 
the rate of one hundred and fifty miles an hour. Several 
instances have occurred of their dashing themselves to death, 
from its force against the glass of lighthouses. Five were 
thus killed in Anglesea; one in Ireland, where it broke a pane 
of plate glass three eighths of an inch in thickness, and its 
own breast-bone and wings as well; others at the Eddystone 
Lighthouse, so well known in story for its destruction by the 
tremendous storm of 1703. In general, however, the flight 
of the Woodcock is not so rapid as might be hence supposed, 
but like others of its class it turns and twists in a curious 
manner. A peculiar rustling of the wings is made in flying, 
the bill then is held downwards: so it is when the bird is 
standing at rest. If disturbed it does not fly at any height 
nor far, but soon seeks the shelter of some bush or other 
covert, or returns round again to the wood it had left. When 
rising of its own accord, it mounts high at once, and, travelling 
always at night, proceeds the more quickly. It walks in a 
heavy and somewhat awkward manner, and flirts up its tail 
at times, shewing the white tips of the feathers distinctly. 
‘In the autumn and spring of the year, when Woodcocks 
migrate, they frequently rove about for a quarter of an hour 
at night and morning, pursuing one another on the wing, 
snapping at each other, and tumbling about, either at dusk, 
just before dark, ‘or in the morning until daylight.’ 
The Rev. Wiliam Bree describes the note to me, having 
heard it on more than one occasion, in the spring of 1854, 
in the New Forest in Hampshire, as a kind of snort; another 
naturalist describes it as a rumbling sound. The young, if 
alarmed, emit a very shrill stridulous note: Meyer likens it 
to ‘tseep,’ and ‘dack,’ the latter expressive of alarm and fear. 
The Woodcock feeds on insects and worms, which latter it 
seems to detect by scenting, and secures unerringly by boring 
with the bill, and also by turning any loose mould or leaves 
from side to side. 
