MIGRATION OF WOODCOCKS. 369 



new nest, at the highest part of the hedge, where he saw 

 all the four eggs deposited in safety; and where they 

 were afterwards hatched. He could not however ascer- 

 tain how the parent birds carried these eggs. 



It remains to make a few remarks on the migration of 

 Woodcocks, which is attended with more mystery than 

 that of most other birds. We shall endeavour briefly to 

 state the chief points for consideration. First, we have 

 every reason to believe that the greater proportion, on 

 leaving this country in March, retire to the wild solitudes 

 of Norway or Sweden. Secondly, that on re-appearing 

 in England, in October, they are, for the most part, poor 

 and weak. Thirdly, that instead of being first seen on 

 the eastern coasts, they are, for the most part, known to 

 land on the western shores of Ireland, and, almost in 

 flocks, on the Scilly Islands, twenty miles to the westward 

 of the Land's-End, Cornwall, quite exhausted. 



Now, on the supposition that the major part are bred 

 in Norway and Sweden, if we examine a map, it will be 

 evident that they ought naturally to alight on the eastern 

 shores, as the nearest points. Their weak, lean, and 

 exhausted state, however, supposing it to arise from 

 fatigue, implies a far longer and more continued flight 

 than that from Norway, which, even supposing that they 

 prefer, for some unknown cause, the western to the 

 eastern shores of our island for their first appearance, is 

 quite a trifling affair for most birds; the distance, in a 

 straight line, from the nearest point of Norway to the 

 Land's-End being not more than a seven or eight hours' 

 journey for a bird, whose rapidity of flight, when once 

 fairly on the wing, is exceeded by few, if any, of the 

 feathered race. It is obvious that so short a space of time 

 is by no means sufficient to occasion fatigue, and, still 

 less, to lower the bodily condition, so as to affect the 

 health of the bird. 



But some may be ready to say, How know we that 

 their flight is short? if they land on the west coast, may 

 they not have crossed the wide Atlantic, and taken their 



2 B 



