276 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



spend the winter there return north by the line of the 

 Rhine, and thus provide a good year for the " Schnep- 

 fen strich " (woodcock migration). On the other hand, 

 when the winter in the Adriatic is severe (and the 

 exceptional severity of the weather this year, when 

 Trieste was literally cut off from both land and sea 

 communication by a terrific snowstorm and blizzard, 

 will be recollected by the reader) the woodcock moves 

 further to the south-eastward. When this occurs the 

 principal flight would seem to return by the east of 

 Europe, and so the birds are less numerous in this 

 district. Where the woodcock go to under these 

 circumstances to spend the winter it would be difficult 

 to say, but I may remark that they are known to visit 

 the Himalayas and Indian hills generally as far south 

 as the Nilgherries in Madras. Woodcock have been 

 stated to have occurred in the Ceylon hills, but the 

 statement lacks authentic confirmation, and as an old 

 Ceylon sportsman I shall take leave to doubt it. At 

 any rate, wherever they go when the winter is severe 

 in the Adriatic, experience points to the fact that they 

 are not returning this year in their usual numbers by 

 this route. 



There is a fascination in the woods at sunset to 

 me at least. Just after the sun is gone I take up my 

 stand at my favourite post. To my right front lies 

 a pond, formed by the damming of a lovely valley, 

 which terminates just before me in a fringe of marshy 

 ground. My position is not lacking in strategical 

 advantages, for while I am hidden from the left and 

 rear by a great rock, I am covered on my right by a 



