COCK IN THE CORN. 69 



ceased, the weather cleared, a severe frost set in, and the 

 birds took their departure, as nothing was found in the 

 morning but billings and markings, and a dead bird lost 

 the night before. 



Woodcock take their departure at the full of the 

 moon, generally during the last week of October. This 

 point I have now carefully watched for many years, 

 and I am quite in the belief that at least the greater 

 bulk of them leave this section of country upon the night 

 that the moon is in the full. I have known of localities, 

 say on the twenty-fourth of October, that contained at 

 least half-a-dozen cock ; on that night a number of cock 

 have arisen, each one by himself, high in the air, and 

 flown in a southern direction ; on the twenty-fifth no 

 cock could be found in those localities, and the night of 

 the twenty-fourth the moon was in the full. To better 

 impress this point I shall give a case or two, wdiich will 

 go to show that there is, at least, something more than 

 circumstantial evidence that the great bulk of woodcock 

 leave us when the moon is in the full. A frfend, who is 

 an indifferent shot, had bagged, out of upwards of fifty 

 chances, a few couple of cock on the eighteenth day of 

 October. I was askedtoaccompany him on the following 

 day as the birds were very numerous. On arriving at 



