WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 89 



found a woodcock, which had flown witli such violence as to break 

 his bill, head, breast-bone, and both wings. The man had often 

 found birds which had killed themselves, i3y flying against the win- 

 dows, but never before knew the glass to be injured. 



IJponthe coast of Sussex woodcocks have been seen at their first 

 arrival, in considerable numbers, in the church-yard, and even in 

 the streets of Rye, but dui-mg the night, the usual time of their 

 flying, they removed farther inland and dispersed. At their first 

 coming on the coast, they are commonly poor in condition, as if 

 weakened and wasted through great exertion, and are likewise 

 sometimes scurfy, though not so much so as before their return in 

 the sprino". The taste of the flesh also undergoes a great change; 

 it is insipid on their arrival, but when they have been a short time 

 feeding in the country, its flavour is greatly improved both in rich- 

 ness and dehcacy. If a woodcock is shot just before its departure, 

 it bleeds plentifully, whereas at the beginning of winter scarcely 

 any blood flows from the wounds. Bythis it would seem, that in 

 those countries where they have their summer residence, they 

 have a different nourishment to what they find here. Probably the 

 luxuriant and succulent food which they meet with among us, pre- 

 pares them for breeding in those countries to which they retire with 

 the companions of their choice. 



It is a well-known fact that the time of their appearance and dis- 

 appearance in Sweden, coincides exactly with that of their arrival 

 in, and departure from. Great Britain. Their autumnal and vernal 

 appearances on the coast of Suffoll^:, have been accurately noticed. 

 They come over sparingly in the first week of October, the gTcater 

 numbers not arriving till November and December, and always 

 after sunset. It is the wind and not the moon which determines 

 the thne of their arrival ; and it is probable that this should be the 

 case, as they come hither in quest of food, which fails them in the 

 places they leave. If the wmd has been favourable for their flight, 

 their stay on the coast where they drop is short, if any; but if they 

 have been forced to struggle with an adverse gale, such as a ship 

 can hardly make head against, they rest a day or two to recover 

 their strength. So greatly have they been exhausted, that on many 

 occasions they have been taken up in Southwold streets, nearly 

 . dead. They do not come gregariously, but separate and dispersed. 

 In the same manner as woodcocks quit us, they retire from Trance, 

 I Germany, and Italy, making the northern and cold situations their 

 i universal rendezvous. They visit Burgundy the latter end of Oc- 

 ' tober, but continue there only four or five weeks ; it benig a dry 

 country, they are forced away for want of sustenance, by the first 

 i frost. In the winter they are found in great plenty as far south as 

 Smyrna, and Aleppo. During the same season, they appear in 

 vast quantities in Barbary, where the Africans call them the "ass 

 of the" partridge." It has been asserted that some have appeared as 

 far south as Egypt, which is the remotest migration to which they 

 can be traced on that side of the eastern world ; on the other side 



