THE WOODCOCK 
of these birds is flushed in covert. In the latter 
case, either instinct or experience seems to 
have taught it extraordinary tricks of zigzag 
manoeuvring that not seldom save its life 
from a long line of over-anxious guns ; though 
out in the open, where it generally flies in a 
straight line for the nearest covert, few birds 
of its size are easier to bring down. Fortu- 
nately, we do not in England shoot the bird 
in springtime, the season of " roding," but 
the practice is in vogue in the evening twi- 
light in every Continental country, and large 
bags are made in this fashion. 
In its hungry moments the woodcock, like 
the snipe, has at once the advantages and 
handicap of so long a beak. On hard ground, 
in a long spell of either drought or frost, it 
must come within measurable distance of 
starvation, for its only manner of procuring 
its food in normal surroundings is to thrust its 
bill deep into the soft mud in search of earth- 
worms. The bird does not, it is true, as was 
once commonly believed, live by suction, or, 
as the Irish peasants say in some parts, on 
water, but such a mistake might well be 
excused in anyone who had watched the 
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