WOODCOCK. 3 



Norway and Sweden, from whence these visitors are sup- 

 posed to come, offers no objection to this supposition, as a 

 continued flight of eight or ten hours, even at a rate in- 

 ferior to what I conceive they are capable of accomplishing, 

 would suffice for the transit. Another argument in favour 

 of this supposition is, the high state of condition in which 

 the birds generally arrive on our shores, especially at an 

 advanced period of the season, by no means indicating the 

 wasting effects of very long continued exertions. It ap- 

 pears that they fly at a considerable altitude, as indeed 

 most birds do when performing their migratory movements. 

 A respectable person who lived upon the coast, and who, 

 being a keen pursuer of wild-fowl, was in the habit of fre- 

 quenting the sea-shore at an early hour in the morning, as- 

 sured me that he had more than once noticed the arrival of 

 a flight of Woodcocks coming from the north-east just at 

 day-dawn. His notice was first attracted by a peculiar 

 sound in the air over his head, that, upon attending to, he 

 found proceeded from birds descending in a direction al- 

 most perpendicular ; and which, upon approaching the 

 shore, separated and flew towards the interior ; these he 

 pursued and shot, and which proved, as he surmised by 

 the view he had of them as they flew past him, to be 

 Woodcocks." Mr. Selby has also observed that " the first 

 flights of these birds, which seldom remain longer than for 

 a few days, and then pass southward, consist chiefly of 

 females ; whilst, on the contrary, the subsequent and latest 

 flights which continue with us, are principally composed 

 of males. It has been noticed by several authors, that the 

 arrival of the males, in a number of our summer visitants, 

 precedes that of the females by many days ; a fact from 

 which we might infer, that in such species a similar sepa- 

 ration exists between the sexes during their ^equatorial 

 migration." The circumstance of the separation for a 



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