WOODCOCK. GRALLATORES. SCOLOPAX. Ill 



i 



those districts where Woodcocks are abundant, by suspend- 

 ing nets across the glades, or by the sides of hedges where 

 they are observed to pass continually ; and, though the 

 adoption of the fowling-piece has in general superseded the 

 modes of capture formerly practised, great numbers are still 

 taken in this manner in Devonshire and Cornwall. Another 

 method of entrapping Woodcocks (as well as Snipes) is by 

 the springe, which is set in places where those perforations 

 made by the bill of the Woodcock in search of food, and tech- 

 nically called Borings, are observed to be most frequent. It 

 is formed of an elastic stick, of which one end is thrust into 

 the ground, the other having affixed to it a noose made of 

 horse- hair ; the stick being then bent down, this noose is 

 passed through a hole in a peg fastened to the ground, and 

 is kept properly expanded by means of a fine trigger, so set 

 as to be displaced by the slight pressure of the bird^s foot. 

 To conduct them to this trap, a low fence of twigs, or of 

 stones placed so closely together as to leave no passage 

 through the interstices, is extended to some distance on each 

 side of the springe, and generally in an oblique direction; 

 over which obstacle, however trifling, it seems the birds never 

 attempt to hop or fly, but keep moving along it, till they ap- 

 proach the part occupied by the noose of the springe : upon 

 attempting to pass through this apparently open space, they 

 displace the trigger, and are almost invariably caught by the 

 noose, and retained by the spring of the stick against the 

 opposing peg. Day being the Woodcock's time for repose, 

 it sits very close, and is not easily flushed ; the sportsman 

 then^requiring the aid of the busy spaniel, or the bush, in 

 which it is ensconced, to be actually beaten by an attend- 

 ant, before it will take wing. It rises, however, with much Flight, 

 quickness, and threads its way through the branches with 

 great rapidity, until the underwood and trees are fairly 

 cleared, when its flight becomes measured, and offers an easy 

 aim to the sportsman. When roused, it seldom flies to any 

 great distance, but alights in the first thicket that attracts 



