THE WOODCOCK 



Wild Birds' Protection Acts. In olden times, 

 when half of Britain was under forest, and 

 when guns were not yet invented that could 

 " shoot flying," woodcocks must have been 

 much more plentiful than they are to-day. 

 In those times the bird was taken on the 

 ground in springes or, when " roding " in 

 the mating season, in nets, known as " shots," 

 that were hung between the trees. When the 

 forest area receded, the resident birds must 

 have dwindled to the verge of extinction, 

 for on more than one occasion we find even 

 a seasoned sportsman like Colonel Hawker 

 worked up to a rare pitch of excitement after 

 shooting woodcock in a part of Hampshire 

 where in our day these birds breed regularly. 

 Thanks, however, to the protection afforded by 

 the law, there is once again probably no county 

 in England in which woodcocks do not nest. 



At the same time, it is as an autumn 

 visitor that, with the first of the east wind in 

 October or November, we look for this un- 

 tiring little traveller from the Continent. 

 Some people are of opinion that since it has 

 extended its residential range fewer come 

 oversea to swell the numbers, but the arrivals 

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