WOODCOCK. 285 



In 1858 the numbers that visited us were easily 

 accounted for by the severe and lasting frosts which 

 immediately succeeded their arrival. Snipes were plen- 

 tiful at the same time, and the quantities of siskins, 

 redpoles, and twites indicated a more than usual amount 

 of cold in more northern countries. At this time, in the 

 same wood at Swanton, where so many were shot in 

 1852, eighty-three woodcocks were killed in one day 

 in the second week of November. In the autumn and 

 winter of 1864, the weather being somewhat severe, 

 a very large number appeared on our coast, and at 

 least one hundred couples, as I was informed at the 

 time, were then killed in the coverts at Melton and 

 Swanton. Mr. T. E. Gunn also states in the "Zoolo- 

 gist" for 1865 (p. 9468), that during the previous 

 autumn scarcely a week passed that he did not see 

 a dozen woodcocks hanging for sale in the Norwich 

 Market, and that he heard of sixty-one having been 

 killed about the last week in November, in a single 

 wood at Gressenhall. Again in the years 1865, 1866, 

 and 1867, very considerable flights reached us late in 

 the autumn. In the former year, though rather a mild 

 season, about one hundred and fifty-five were said 

 to have been killed at Swanton and Melton in four 

 days' shooting ; sixty-seven in one day, and fifty-seven 

 from Swanton wood alone.* In 1867, in the same 

 woods, fifty-one were shot in one week in November, 

 just prior to the commencement of very severe frosts. 



The return of the woodcocks in the spring of the 

 year, which usually occurs in March, is, comparatively 

 speaking, but little noticed.f The shooting season being 



* See " Field," January 6th, 1866. 



t "The nearest approach I ever saw," writes Mr. Lubbock, 

 " to the migration of this bird from England, was on the 10th of 

 March, 1824 : a pair of woodcocks passed across the road near 

 Caistor, within a few yards of me, flying one behind another 

 directly for the beach, which was within a quarter of a mile." 



