FLIGHT OF WOODCOCKS. 371 



flight till early dawn, where would they be? Look to the 

 map, and we shall find them, after their flight, at the rate 

 of one hundred and twenty, or one hundred and fifty 

 miles per hour, far away to the westward of Ireland, 

 hovering over the Atlantic, steering for America; and 

 that they are found at sea, we learn from the most 

 respectable authority. A Cornish gentleman, sailing at a 

 distance from land unusual for birds to be seen, discerned 

 a bird high in the air, which, gradually descending, 

 alighted on the deck, and proved to be a Woodcock. 

 During a heavy gale, two others sought shelter on board 

 a line-of-battle ship cruizing in the Channel: and a naval 

 officer informed us, that after a stormy night, several 

 leagues to the westward of the Land's-End, when shaking 

 the reefs out of the topsails, early in the morning, several 

 Woodcocks were discovered in the rigging. With these 

 premises before us, we think the mystery is, if not 

 entirely removed, at least much lessened, and a first land- 

 ing on the western shores of Ireland, and the Scilly 

 Islands, fairly and easily accounted for; the birds 

 naturally, as day approached, sinking downwards to the 

 nearest land. 



That their flight, too, is rapid to the last, is further 

 proved, by many instances having occurred of their killing 

 themselves by flying against the glass of the Eddystone 

 Light-house. Of their speed, indeed, some estimation 

 may be formed, by one which struck against the plate- 

 glass of a light-house, on the coast of Ireland, and broke 

 a pane^cast for the place, of unusual strength, viz., from A 



to B (A B), being more than three-eighths of an inch 



thick; the blow was so violent, that in addition to the 

 glass being broken, the bird was found dead, with its 

 breast-bone, and both wings also, smashed. Again, no 

 less than five Woodcocks have killed themselves, in a 

 similar manner, against the plate-glasses of the South- 

 Stack light-house, in Anglesey. 



There was a time when Woodcocks might be almost 

 said to be as plentiful as Wood-Pigeons are now ; at least, 



2 B 2 



