6 SCOLOPACIDJl. 



gist for 1828, " that some years ago, a few miles from the 

 Land's End, the sea was strewed with hundreds of Wood- 

 cocks : it is probable that they were exhausted by their 

 long flight, and hundreds seem to have fallen together into 

 the sea ; some of them were taken up, and found to be 

 perfectly fresh." Three or four instances are recorded 

 of Woodcocks alighting on the deck of ships in the Eng- 

 lish Channel, and that fliey go much farther south on 

 their migration over the European continent to the east 

 of us, will be proved by the quantities found through- 

 out the winter in various localities to be hereafter 

 quoted. 



The Woodcock is a nocturnal bird, seeking its repose by 

 day, remaining quietly hid in the dry grassy bottoms of 

 brakes and woods, seldom or never moving unless disturbed. 

 Sir Humphrey Davy, in his Salmonia, says, " A laurel, or a 

 holly bush is a favourite place for their repose : the thick 

 and varnished leaves of these trees prevent the radiation of 

 heat from the soil, and they are less affected by the refrige- 

 rating influence of a clear sky, so that they afford a warm 

 seat for the Woodcock." 



Towards night it sallies forth on silent wing, pursuing 

 a well-known track through the cover to its feeding-ground. 

 These tracks or open glades in woods, are sometimes called 

 cockshoots and cock-roads, and it is in these places that 

 nets, called road-nets, were formerly suspended for their 

 capture, but the gun is now the more common means of 

 obtaining them. A few may still be caught with nooses 

 of horse-hair, set up about the springs or soft ground 

 where the birds leave the marks of the perforations, or 

 borings made with their beaks. The common earth-worms 

 appear to be the food most eagerly sought after. Two or 

 three Ornithologists have borne testimony to the almost 

 incredible quantity of earth-worms which a single Wood- 



