164 



WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 



or, familiarly speaking, iii that family of snipes and 

 woodcocks common to our British marshes and 

 woodland covers. These birds are winter visitants of 



THE WOODCOCI 



our coasts, and their migration is nocturnal. Upon 

 their first arrival they are to be fomid in whin covers 

 on the sea shore, or on heathy moors. When ex- 

 hausted by the length of their flight, they are some- 

 times so little shy, that they can hardly be raised, and 

 may be killed in great numbers, while more fre- 

 quently they are timid to excess. They will, per- 

 haps, rest a day or so in the localities we have men- 

 tioned, and then are off to settle, as it were, for the 

 winter. They will then choose far-spreading woods, 

 interspersed with holly, spruce, and other evergreens, 



