WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 1G9 



to the coverts, which they sometimes do in flights or 

 iimnbers, the}^ choose the j^ear-okl slopes, or they 

 betake themselves to the edges of the woods ; after- 

 wards they lie up in ordinary, as it were, in coverts 

 of from seven to ten years' growth." 



The woodcock is often supposed to make a flight 

 to Ireland from our shores, in seasons of severe frost, 

 the ]3revailing moisture of that clime being genial to 

 the conformation of the bird. It is well known they 

 leave us in numbers when a long, hard frost may have 

 prevailed. It seems to be an axiom in nature, 

 that the voracious animal is a solitary one. The 

 beasts of prey, for the most part, roam singly the 

 pathless wilderness in quest of victims ; the carni- 

 vorous birds, who make their eyries on the moun- 

 tain-top, live and pair singly ; the huge monsters of 

 the deep, who feast on carrion, approve of no compe- 

 tition in blood; and thus, too, these smaller birds 

 and animals, who are greedy, or rapid of digestion, 

 appear averse to flocking together. This holds good 

 of the species we are describing ; and, indeed, it is a 

 fact, that one plashy brake, such as the bird loves, 

 will not contain more food than will support one of 

 these birds. Colonel Montague says : " The enor- 

 mous quantity these birds eat is scarcely credible : 

 indeed, it would be the constant labour of one person 

 to procure food (worms or the laiwee of insects) for 



two or three woodcocks The difficulty 



of collecting a sufficiency of such precarious aliment 



determined us to try if bread and milk would not be 



o 



