WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 85 



conformation of the bird, and particularly from the structure of its 

 head, we have an opportunity of displaying some of the wonderful 

 contrivances which Nature has instituted for the sustenance and 

 preservation of her various orders of animated Ixdugs. Prom the 

 extreme sensibility of the mouth of the woodcock, some structiu-al 

 peculiarities are requii-ed to gain a given end or object--the 

 capture of insects deeply embedded in either mud, eaith, or decayed 

 wood. 



The woodcock, it has often been said, is naturally a shy and 

 retiring bird, rarely taking vring by day, unless disturbed ; but just 

 as daylight is dying away, it quits the wood, and nearly at the Fame 

 instant tries to reach some meadows in search of wet and splashy 

 places and moist grounds in search for food. As the day da^vns. ft 

 again returns to its hiding place. Thus, when most other birds are 

 recruiting exhausted nature by sleep, _ woodcocks are rambling 

 through the dark, directed by an exquisite sense of feeling con- 

 veyed to them by their long and singularly-constructed bill. The 

 eye is not called into use, and, like the mole, they may be said to 

 feed beneath the surface ; and by the remarkable sensibility of the 

 instrument which is thrust into the soft earth, not a worm nor a 

 grub, however small, can escape that is within its reach. The 

 eyes of the bird are large in proportion to its general bulk of 

 body, and, like those of some otlier noctural bii-ds, are particularly 

 constiTicted for collecting the faint rays of light in the darkened 

 vales and sequestered woodlands during its nocturnal excursions. 

 The birds of this class are thus enabled to avoid hitting against 

 trees and other obstacles that oppose themselves in their flight. 

 The nerves in their bills, like in those of the duck tribe, are very- 

 numerous, and highly sensible of the most niinute touch. A wood- 

 jcock in a menagerie has been known to discover and draw forth 

 ■every worm m the ground, which was dug up to enable him to bore 

 [with his bill; and worms put into a large garden-pot covered mth 

 learth, five or six inches deep, were cleared away by the next morn- 

 ing without one being left. The enormous quantity of worms 

 'which Avoodcocks devour is scarcely credible ; indeed, it Avould be 

 a constant labour for any one person to procure such food in suf- 

 ficient quantity for two or three of these birds. The diiiiculty of 



collecting a sufficiency of such precarious ahments has led experi- 

 ilk w< ' ' 



mentors to try if bread and milk would not be a good substitute, 



' and we are told that the result has been, that by placing clean 



.washed worms into the mess, the bird soon acquired the taste for 



'the new food, and eventually would eat a basin of milk and bread 



iin twenty-four hours, besides the w^orms and grubs it could obtain. 



I' The digestive powers of the woodcock are remarkably vigorous 



I and rapid. On anatomical examination there is very little found in 



its stomach and intestines, save a few fibres of a vegetable texture, 



and a little sand, mixed with small stones and gravel.* 



There are three varieties of British woodcocks. On this point 



* See Bewick, Blumenbach, aud Montague. 



