WOODCOCK. 5 
The Woodcock has commenced of late years to breed in most 
of the large woods in Sutherlandshire. _ On their first arrival 
they resort to smaller plantations and copses, and even to 
open fields, as of turnips, and afterwards to more extensive 
covers. 
The Woodcock is a nocturnal or crepuseular bird, hiding 
during the day under some evergreen or other thick bush, and 
towards night sallying out by some accustomed track to its 
feeding-ground. It is of shy and retired habits, and rarely 
takes wing by day unless disturbed. In milder weather it ~ 
retires to higher grounds on moors and mountains, but on the 
approach of frost seeks the shelter of the lowlands. A pair 
of these birds have been known to fly at and attack a woman 
who approached a spring where she had found their nest 
containing five young ones. They return to their accustomed 
haunts, it would seem, year after year. Bishop Stanley mentions 
a Woodcock, which being accidentally captured in a net, was 
let loose after a brass ring had been fastened round its leg; 
this occurred in February. On finding itself at liberty, it rose 
to a very great height in the air, and directed its flight towards 
the sea, from which it was distant about twenty miles. In 
December, this same bird was shot in the same wood where x 
had been taken. 
The Woodcock has been observed, in more instances than 
one, to remove its young by holding them in its feet; and 
this not only on being disturbed, but at other times ordinarily, 
to convey them to the nearest springs to feed. Woodcocks 
are in poor condition on their first arrival here, but soon 
become fat, and as need hardly be observed, are most excellent 
eating. In ‘The Naturalist, volume ii, page 19, there is a 
singular anecdote related of one of these birds being found on 
the 9th. of October, 1852, perched on the back of a stove 
in an iron warehouse, at Lynn, in Norfolk. . In the year 1853, 
Woodcocks were unusually abundant in different parts of the 
country. In one wood near Thornaye, Norfolk, one hundred 
and fifty-three were shot in three days—ninety, thirty, and 
thirty-three. 
In Ireland, where they have been the most abundant, the 
Earl of Claremont formerly shot fifty couple in one day. 
The author of ‘Wild Sports of the West,’ mentions that from 
a copse of not more than thirty acres, he has seen fifty couple 
flushed; and in Daniels’ ‘Rural Sports, it is recorded that 
Mr. Yea, of Swansea, killed a hundred couple in the season of 
