WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



which is at a distance of two or three miles. In the evening 

 the woodcock's flight is rapid and steady, instead of being 

 uncertain and owl-Hlce as it often is in the bright sunshine. 

 I consider their vision to be pecuHarly adapted to the twi- 

 Hght.andeven to thedarker hours of night — thisbeingthe 

 bird's feeding-time. In very severe and protracted snow- 

 storms and frosts I have seen them feeding at the springs 

 during the daytime; but in moderate weather they pass all 

 the light hours in the solitary recesses of the quietest parts 

 of the woods, although occasionally one will remain all day 

 in the swamp, or near the springs on the hill side, where he 

 had been feeding during the night. When they first arrive, 

 about the month of November, I have sometimes fallen in 

 with twoor three brace farupinthemountain, while grouse- 

 shooting. They then sit very close, and are easily killed. 

 The first frost, however, sends them all to the shelter of the 

 woods. No bird seems less adapted for a long flight across 

 the sea than the woodcock; and it is only by takingadvant- 

 age of a favourable wind that they can accomplish their 

 passage. An intelligent master of a ship once told me, that 

 in his voyages to and from Norway and Sweden, he has 

 frequently seen them, tired and exhausted, pitched for a 

 moment or two with outspread wings in the smooth water 

 in the ship's wake; and having rested themselves for a few 

 moments, continue their weary journey. 



Although those that remain here breed so early in the 

 year, the woodcocks that migrate do not leave England till 

 the end of March or beginning of April.* In the wild exten- 



* That is not the case. All woodcocks that are seen in Britain after the beginning of 

 March may be assumed to have spent the winter in the south of Europe and to have ar- 

 rived to breed. — Ed. 



362 



