MODE OF FEEDING. 191 



the same purpose. Fresh sod was brought to them, the 

 richest in worms that could be found. In vain did the 

 worms seek concealment ; when the Woodcock was hungry, 

 it discovered them by the smell, stuck its beak into the 

 ground, but never higher than the nostrils, drew them 

 out singly, and, raising its bill into the air, it extended 

 upon it the whole length of the worm, and in this way 

 swallowed it smoothly, without any action of the jaws. 

 This whole operation was performed in an instant, and 

 the action of the Woodcock was so equal and imper- 

 ceptible, that it seemed doing nothing ; it never missed its 

 aim. For this reason, and because it never plunged its 

 bill beyond the orifice of the nostrils, it was concluded 

 that the bird was directed to its food by smell." 



The Woodcock, prior to proceeding to its feeding- 

 grounds in the evening and return to cover in the morning, 

 always flies, during spring and summer at least, several 

 times backwards and forwards over precisely the same 

 line of country, uttering meanwhile its peculiar call-note, 

 of which presently. Such a locality is in Sweden called 

 a Morkull-drag, or struck, i. c. stretch; answering to our 

 " Cock-rode " or " Cock-shoot." 



These " rodings " of the Woodcock, which Linnaeus 

 says " often extend to a distance of a mile," Swedish, 

 equal to nearly seven English, " in a quarter of an 

 hour," and which he describes as " singular and wonderful, 

 and confined to this bird alone," have long puzzled 

 the learned, and others, in the Peninsula; but at the 

 present day it seems to be pretty generally admitted 

 they are more or less connected with the " Lek-tid," 

 or love-season. And such is probably the case; because 

 Mr. G. Chichester Oxenden writes me that, " during 

 autumn and mid-winter, this bird never ' rodes ' in 

 the way spoken of ; but proceeds in a straight line from 

 the cover where it has harboured in the daytime, to its 



