ALWAYS NOCTURNAL. 199 



One then finds them amongst brushwood on the hill-sides, 

 where, in open places, snow-drifts often still remain ; but 

 their stay on the coast is short, as they soon spread them- 

 selves over the surrounding country. It is rare, therefore, 

 to meet with many in the same locality, excepting at 

 Prederikstad, where numbers are often seen congregated." 



The migratory flights of the Woodcock are believed 

 to be always nocturnal. No one, at least, either in England 

 or Scandinavia, seems to have witnessed them in the day- 

 time. It is also the general belief in the Peninsula one 

 that Nilsson would likewise seem to entertain,* that the 

 migratory flights of these birds are pretty much confined 

 to moonlight nights. But this can hardly be the case, be- 

 cause the late Lieutenant Anders Uggla, an indefatigable 

 sportsman, tells us that, "in the year 1845, these birds 

 arrived in Scania between the 29th March and 10th 

 April, when the nights were the darkest." The oft-re- 

 corded fact of Woodcocks destroying themselves on dark 

 nights, by flying against the windows of light-houses, goes 

 very far to prove the correctness of my lamented friend's 

 statements. 



It is also the commonly received opinion in Scandinavia 

 that the Woodcock, when migrating, always flies, as a 

 rule, with the wind ; and from what Kjaerbolling and others 

 tell us, this would appear to be the fact. But if what 

 Ekstrom says of the habits of the Thrush family, when 



* " M. Borgstrbm and M. Svedenborg, both distinguished sportsmen," 

 says the L'rofessor, " assure me, after the experience of several years, that 

 Woodcocks for the most part arrive in Sweden during the full moon of 

 Easter, when the nights are the lightest. This interesting information," he 

 u< irs on to say, "can without doubt materially assist in clearing up several 

 points relating to the migratory habits of these birds. As is known, birds 

 of passage arrive in the night-time. Their earlier or later arrival in the 

 same district in different years must thus in great degree depend on the 

 nature of the nijji'-. 



