WOODCOCK. 585 



vancetl period of the season, by no means indicating the 

 wasting effects of very long continued exertions. It appears 

 that they fly at a considerable altitude, as indeed most birds 

 do when performing their migratory movements. A respect- 

 able person who lived upon the coast, and who, being a keen 

 pursuer of wild-fowl, was in the habit of frequenting the sea- 

 shore at an early hour in the morning, assured me that he 

 had more than once noticed the arrival of a flight of Wood- 

 cocks coming from the north-east just at day dawn. His 

 notice was first attracted by a peculiar sound in the air over 

 his head, that, upon attending to, he found proceeded from 

 birds descending in a direction almost perpendicular ; and 

 which, upon approaching the shore, separated and flew to- 

 wards the interior ; these he pursued and shot, and which 

 proved, as he surmised by the view he had of them as they 

 flew past him, to be Woodcocks." Mr. Selby has also ob- 

 served that " the first flights of these birds, which seldom re- 

 main longer than for a few days, and then pass southward, 

 consist chiefly of females ; whilst, on the contrary, the sub- 

 sequent and latest flights which continue with us, are prin- 

 cijjally composed of males. It has been noticed by several 

 authors, that the arrival of the males, in a number of our 

 summer visitants, precedes that of the females by many days ; 

 a fact from which we might infer, that in such species a 

 similar separation exists between the sexes during their ?equa- 

 toi'ial migration." The circumstance of the separation for a 

 time of the males and females in the Woodcock, or Wood- 

 snipe, as it is sometimes called, accounts for the result which 

 occurred at the early part of the present Woodcock season. 

 On making internal examination of twelve Woodcocks, from 

 one locality, for the purpose of ascertaining the sex, for my 

 use in this work, only two of them proved to be males. 



Under the influence of a north-east wind, their course is 

 probably between south and west ; this will account for the 



