222 THE FOWLER IN IRELAND. 



gained by seeing traces of frozen mud on the bill 

 and feathers of the forehead. 



Woodcock, as well as Curlew, will swallow 

 mussels, but not to the same extent. On dissecting 

 those shot from among rocks and seaweed, I have 

 found that they had been bolting whole small shell- 

 fish. The appetite of a Woodcock is almost in- 

 satiable, and a tame bird in my possession has often 

 eaten before my eyes a cupful of garden worms, and 

 then looked wistfully for more. 



Though Cock hide by day, they will flit out at the 

 very hour the fowler is in wait for the evening 

 flight of Duck. Many a Woodcock have I then 

 shot, and they often at this time fly within a few 

 yards of the shooter. They may be seen slowly 

 whirling and twisting like a bat, and totally different 

 to the owl-like flight of the bird when flushed in an 

 open space by day, or to the arrow-like manner it 

 flits round the trunks of trees in a wood. 



They leave the woods at that time by well-known 

 airy paths, and so regularly do they adhere to their 

 accustomed routes, that nets are set at certain spots 

 to intercept them as they emerge at dusk, and in 

 these they are caught. So close do Cock creep 

 and hide in bush or briar by day, that I have several 

 times seen them picked up uninjured, unable to run 

 or rise clear in time to escape. I once caught one 

 myself in this way ; but it was a mere chance, for I 

 should have passed the bird by had I not remarked 

 its large eye shining among some brambles and 

 dead leaves. 



When waiting for Duck, as early in the spring as 

 the ist of March, I have heard Cock uttering the 



