SCOLOPAX RUSTICOLA 31 



" When migrating they are said to fly strongly and well, hut when 

 flushed, the flight is at first slow, uncertain and Owl-like, and ceases 

 suddenly, the bird dropping instantaneously behind some bush. I 

 have never had any sport with Woodcock in Northern India. I have 

 often shot them, rarely more than three in a day ; but they gave no 

 sort of sport. They fluttered up flushed by the dogs or some beater 

 within twenty yards, and were knocked over by a snapshot as they 

 hung wavering on first rising. One shot them because they were so 

 good to eat ; in every other respect they were not worth shooting. 

 They don't seem to fly a bit as Woodcock do in covers at home, where 

 even a good shot is at times baulked ; but, like Snipe, and almost 

 every living thing domiciled in this clime of the sun,' they seem to 

 have become listless and sluggish." 



The manner in which Woodcock are said to perform surgical 

 operations on their own wounds has been often alluded to, and is 

 a common belief with gamekeepers and others ; indeed, many sports- 

 men whom I have met are quite convinced that the apparent atten- 

 tion which has been paid to a wound is the intelligent work of the 

 bird itself. Thus Colonel Wilson writes me : — 



On two occasions I have noticed instances of the so-called won- 

 derful way the Woodcock has of doctoring itself. One day I wounded 

 a bird, saw it go off badly hit, but failed to pick it up. A fortnight 

 or so later I flushed a bird in exactly the same place and got it. It 

 seemed in very poor condition, and on examining it, I found it had what 

 looked like a regular splint on one of its legs formed of a tiny piece 

 of stick most carefully bound round with feathers. The other case 

 was one of a bird which had evidently escaped from a snare. A 

 great patch of skin had been torn oft' just above the wing, and this 

 was covered with a poultice of feathers beautifully attached to the 

 feathers growing in the laird's body." 



Of course, these works of art are the result of accident, not design, 

 and are caused by the birds lying in muddy places. The wounded 

 part, in most instances wet with blood already, naturally gets 

 covered with mud or clay to which feathers, tiny sticks and grass 

 adhere and make a poultice which doubtless may be in some instances 

 as effectual as a splint or poultice made by design. I once shot an 

 owl with a badly smashed thigh, how caused I do not know, but it 

 had been lying in muddy grass-land, and the breast next the wounded 

 leg and the whole thigh itself, had become densely matted with 

 feathers, chips of grass, mud and blood, which formed a perfect 



