THE WOODCOCK 



of these birds is flushed in covert. In the latter 

 case, either instinct or experience seems to 

 have taught it extraordinary tricks of zigzag 

 manoeuvring that not seldom save its life 

 from a long line of over-anxious guns ; though 

 out in the open, where it generally flies in a 

 straight line for the nearest covert, few birds 

 of its size are easier to bring down. Fortu- 

 nately, we do not in England shoot the bird 

 in springtime, the season of " roding," but 

 the practice is in vogue in the evening twi- 

 light hi every Continental country, and large 

 bags are made in this fashion. 



In its hungry moments the woodcock, like 

 the snipe, has at once the advantages and 

 handicap of so long a beak. On hard ground, 

 in a long spell of either drought or frost, it 

 must come within measurable distance of 

 starvation, for its only manner of procuring 

 its food in normal surroundings is to thrust its 

 bill deep into the soft mud in search of earth- 

 worms. The bird does not, it is true, as was 

 once commonly believed, live by suction, or, 

 as the Irish peasants say in some parts, on 

 water, but such a mistake might well be 

 excused in anyone who had watched the 

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