152 THE GUN: AFIELD AND AFLOAT 



woods are lost to the pheasant-shooter of this country, 

 whose coverts are seldom invaded before the autumn 

 leaves have fallen ; by that time, if my supposition 

 prove correct, these birds will have departed southward, 

 where, in their turn, they may provide sport for the 

 gunners of Spain or of Albania who knows ? 



Undoubtedly the interest of the sportsmen of this 

 country must chiefly centre upon the migratory wood- 

 cock, for the birds which come to winter here are a 

 hundred times more numerous than are those remaining 

 here throughout the summer. The annual autumnal 

 migration of the woodcock has long attracted the 

 attention of both naturalist and sportsman. A glance 

 at the short, rounded wings of the woodcock does not 

 convey the impression that this bird is built for flying 

 long distances. In fact, judging solely by appearances, 

 one might perhaps be excused for putting down the 

 woodcock as an out and out stay-at-home. Still, as is 

 often the case when folk judge merely by externals or 

 jump to conclusions generally, such decision would be 

 entirely erroneous, for woodcock are capable of under- 

 taking somewhat lengthy and arduous flights of several 

 hundreds of miles at a stretch when journeying between 

 these islands and their nesting-places in Northern 

 Europe. 



Large flights of woodcock now and again reach our 

 eastern coasts in October or November. The birds 

 undertake their extensive journeys by night, and, year 

 by year, I have known them to be found along the coast 

 within a few days of the middle of October. Flam- 

 borough Head and Spurn v Point, in Yorkshire, are 

 favourite landing-places for the. over-sea woodcock, the 

 birds, so the natives aver, being attracted thither by the 



