UPLAND SHOOTING. 215 



The cause of this, I suppose to be explicable thus, — that there 

 is, in i'act, always a two-told migration of Woodcock in the 

 autumn, tliat of the birds bred in these districts, which, having 

 absented themselves during the moult, return immediately, that 

 over, to the vicinity of their resting-places, and remain through- 

 out tlie autumn, — and that of the birds bred very far north of 

 us, which tarry at the north so long as the weather will permit, 

 and then visit us for a few days, more or less, according to the 

 state of the country and the temperature, but never make any 

 protracted sojourn with us. 



In such a case as that which I have mentioned, the home-bred 

 birds are probably driven southward at once by the tem])orary 

 local snow-storm, while the northern flights, not having been 

 forced to move, tarry till the last, and then hurry off, pitching 

 only for a single day to rest themselves, and resuming tlieir 

 progress every night. 



Woodcock and Snipe both, it is hardly necessary to observe, 

 are in a great measure nocturnal birds, and almost invariably 

 make all their long voyages, and usually even their casual trips 

 from one feeding ground to another, between sunset and sun- 

 rise. I have occasionally seen Snipe travelling high in the air, 

 in small whisps, during the day time in dark foggy weather 

 with small rain falling ; but I have never known Woodcock to 

 move their quarters, unless violently aroused, until it is almost 

 too dark to distinguish them on the wing. 



The weather, in which both these swift passengers love best 

 to roam, is dull, hazy, and sometimes even rainy, and that com- 

 monly on the breaking of a north-easterly storai. This is par- 

 ticularly the case with the Snipe, and in the spring. In fact, I 

 have never known them abundant on the meadows until after 

 two or three days cold heavy rain, and to there having been no 

 such storm this present year, I attribute, in a gieat measure, 

 the extreme scarcity of Snipe. 



It is a little singular, however, that, while these birds prefer 

 thick and hazy weather, they almost always choose moonlight 

 nights, and fly most when the moon is near the full. When 



