THE WOODCOCK. 235 



parish of Chirnside ; and the Moor Plantation near Whit- 

 chester in the parish of Longformacus, are favourite haunts 

 of this bird, and in these it is usually found in greater 

 numbers during the shooting season than elsewhere. 



One or two Woodcocks may be generally found during 

 the winter months in the woods about Paxton, where they 

 appear to have certain favourite retreats. I have seen 

 them oftenest in the Well Mire Wood, the Crow Dean 

 Wood, and the Old Heronry Wood ; but they also resort to 

 the plantations on Nabdean Farm. During the severe 

 snowstorm in the end of December 1874, Woodcocks in 

 numbers frequented the woods at Paxton. They were 

 generally found about the sides of the burns in the plant- 

 ations, where the ground was comparatively free from 

 frost, and where they searched under the fallen leaves and 

 in the soft earth for worms and insect food. At the be- 

 ginning of the severe weather the Cocks, on being flushed, 

 flew off very rapidly, but after the storm had continued for 

 a week or two they seemed to get weak and rise with 

 reluctance from their haunts, flew slowly, and alighted at 

 a short distance from the place where they rose. 1 The 

 burn which runs through the Well Mire Wood and falls 

 into the Whitadder never freezes in the hardest frost ; and 

 as the ground along its course is soft, it is easily penetrated 

 by the bill of the Woodcock, and is one of their favourite 

 resorts when snow lies on the ground and the frost is 

 severe. The Old Heronry Wood is a romantic and beauti- 

 ful dean through which a small stream meanders before it 

 joins the Tweed a short distance to the west of Paxton 



i On the 17th December 1884 my friend, the Kev. Thomas Marjoribanks of Pres- 

 toukirk, told me that during the severe frost of January 1881 Woodcocks were seen 

 haunting all the small springs in the neighbourhood of East Linton, and the boys 

 were throwing stones at them. When curling on the Tyne he noticed the birds 

 continually flying over the rink on their way to and from the springs, and they 

 were so weak in their flight that the curlers threw their brooms at them, and two 

 were killed in this way. They flew just like bats. 



