THE WOODCOCK 
Wild Birds' Protection Acts. In olden times, 
when half of Britain was under forest, and 
when guns were not yet invented that could 
" shoot flying," woodcocks must have been 
much more plentiful than they are to-day. 
In those times the bird was taken on the 
ground in springes or, when " roding " in 
the mating season, in nets, known as " shots," 
that were hung between the trees. When the 
forest area receded, the resident birds must 
have dwindled to the verge of extinction, 
for on more than one occasion we find even 
a seasoned sportsman like Colonel Hawker 
worked up to a rare pitch of excitement after 
shooting woodcock in a part of Hampshire 
where in our day these birds breed regularly. 
Thanks, however, to the protection afforded by 
the law, there is once again probably no county 
in England in which woodcocks do not nest. 
At the same time, it is as an autumn 
visitor that, with the first of the east wind in 
October or November, we look for this un- 
tiring little traveller from the Continent. 
Some people are of opinion that since it has 
extended its residential range fewer come 
oversea to swell the numbers, but the arrivals 
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