170 WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 



a good substitute ; and we found tliat, by putting 

 clean-washed worms into the mess, the bird soon 

 acquired a taste for this new food, and will now eat a 

 basin of bread and milk in twenty-four hours, besides 

 the worms it can procure." 



Woodcocks are seldom seen to fly in the day- 

 time, they do not like stormy weather, and shift their 

 quarters very much according to the climate. Thus 

 they breed on the mountain-heights of Jura, and 

 remain among the Alps throughout the year, visiting 

 the moist places of the vallies according to the season : 

 in the summer amid the hills ; in the winter descend- 

 ing to the plains. They breed also in the mountains 

 of Sweden, Poland, Prussia, Norway, and Lapland ; 

 indeed, eveiywhere that Nature teaches them their 

 delicately nerved bills can pick from the marshes 

 and plashes the necessary supply of food. Here 

 they remain until the sun and the frost, alike their 

 enemies, shall have dried up the springs and water- 

 courses ; till the ground shall have become too arid 

 for their support ; till the vermicular insects are 

 upon the wing ; or till the frost shall have congealed 

 the earth into one solid mass, impenetrable to their 

 bills. When this occurs, these cold-loving birds must 

 either wing their flight to other regions, or perish. 



It is said, that the arrival of the woodcock is more 

 or less influenced by certain winds blowing from 

 their locations : these are taken advantage of as they 

 occur ; thus sparing them that fatigue the conforma- 

 tion of their wings, though large, does not enable 



