276 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



they first reach our shores, are emaciated and 

 exhausted. The * shiny nights ' in October always 

 bring back to my memory Why te - Melville's 

 lines : 



* The woodcock on a moonlit night 

 Comes flitting o'er the sea.' 



When flushed a second or third time, wood- 

 cocks are very apt to return to the place where 

 they first rose ; but this very much depends, I 

 think, upon the position of the springs, for they 

 generally make off to some holly-bush near a 

 spring or moist ground, and when these are not 

 forthcoming they will circle round again to where 

 they were first flushed. It is curious how great 

 repugnance some dogs evince to retrieve a 

 woodcock, and it is with the greatest difficulty 

 that they can be induced to do so. On first 

 rising from the ground, the flight of a wood- 

 cock is slow and heavy, and by no means 

 unlike that of an owl ; but when well on the 

 wing there is, perhaps, no bird whose flight is 

 more rapid, or one which is better able to test 

 the skill of the gunner. 



May I be permitted to remark, for the benefit 

 of the uninitiated, that the term of 'drawing,' as 

 applied to a woodcock, has an altogether different 

 signification to when it is applied to a hare, and 

 that a woodcock is invariably cooked without 

 being denuded of its interior economy ? To 

 4 draw ' a woodcock means to remove the sinew 



