THE wooficocK.] BY FIELD. WOOD, AND WATKR. [tmk woodcock. 



CIIAriKIi VllI 

 Tirr, WOODCOCK, 



"W^'oODCOCK shooting liasi been callod tlio 

 " Fox-hunting of shooting" — a phrase at once 

 doscrii)tivo of its character and dignity. 



Tlio Woodcock (Scolopax liiis/icoJa, Linn.) 

 is placed by naturalists at the head of the 

 snipe genus. It is thus described by Bewick 

 and others : — " Its length is about fourteen 

 inches ; twenty-six in breadth ; and its weight 

 about twelve ounces, though sometimes it is 

 found to the extent of fourteen. The shape of 

 the head is considered somewhat curious, 

 being more obtusely triangular than round ; 

 and the eyes are placed very forward, near the 

 top of the ears, and nearly in a line with the 

 corners of the mouth. The upper mandible, 

 which measures about three inches, is furrowed 

 nearly its entire length ; and at the tip it pro- 

 jects beyond, and hangs over the under one, 

 ending in a kind of knob, which, resembling 

 those of others of the same genus, is suscep- 

 tible of the finest feeling, and calculated by that 

 means for aiding, perhaps, by an acute sense 

 of smell, to find the small worms in the soft 

 and moist grounds, from whence it extracts 

 them with its sharp-pointed tongue. By 

 means of its bill, it likewise turns over and 

 tosses about the fallen leaves, in search of in- 

 sects which take shelter underneath. By the 

 entire conformation of the bird, and particu- 

 larly for the structure of its head, we have an 

 opportunity of displaying some of the wonder- 

 ful contrivances which Nature has instituted 

 for the sustenance and preservation of her 

 various orders of animated beings. From the 

 extreme sensibility of the mouth of the wood- 

 cock, some structural peculiarities are required 

 to gain a given end or object — the capture of 

 insects deeply embedded in either mud, earth, 

 or decayed wood." 



The woodcock, it has been said, is naturally 

 of a shy and retiring disposition, rarely taking 

 vring by day, unless disturbed ; but just as twi- 

 light begins, it quits the woods, and, nearly at 

 the same instant, wanders over the meadows in 

 search of wet and splashy places, and moist 



grounds, in quest of food. As the day dawna 

 it retires to its hiding-place. Thus, when most 

 other birds are recruiting exhausted naturo 

 by sleep, the woodcock is roaming through tlie 

 dark, directed by an exquisite sense of feeling, 

 which it experiences by means of its long 

 and singularly-constructed bill. The eye is 

 not called into use ; and, like the mole, it 

 may be said to feed beneath the surface ; and 

 by the sensibility of the instrument, which is 

 thrust into the soft earth, not a worm, however 

 small, can escape that is within its reach. 



The eyes of the woodcock are of largo 

 dimensions in proportion to its general bulk of 

 body ; and, like those of some other nocturnal 

 birds, have the capacity of collecting the faint 

 rays of light, in the darkened vales and seques- 

 tered woodlands, during its nocturnal excur- 

 sions. Thus, likewise, it is enabled to avoid 

 coming in contact with trees and other ob- 

 stacles, which are continually offering im- 

 pediment to its flight. The nerves on the bills, 

 like those of the duck tribe, are very numer- 

 ous, and have a highly sensible power in dis- 

 criminating between objects by the sense of 

 touch. A woodcock, in a menagerie, has dis- 

 covered and drawn forth every worm iu the 

 ground, which was dug up to enable it to 

 bore with its bill ; and worms put into a large 

 garden-pot, covered with earth, live or sL 

 inches deep, wholly disappear before the fero- 

 city of the woodcock by the next morning. 

 The enormous quantity of worms which wood- 

 cocks devour is scarcely credible ; indeed, it 

 would be the constant labour of one person to 

 collect such food in suflicient quantity for two 

 or three of these birds. The dilBculty of col- 

 lecting a sufficiency of such precarious aliments, 

 has led the interested to try if bread and milk 

 would not be a good substitute ; and it has 

 been found that, by placing clean-washed 

 worms into the mess, the bird soon acquires 

 the taste for its new food, and would even- 

 tually eat a basin of bread and milk in twenty- 

 four hours, besides the worms it could obtain. 



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