THE "WOODCOCK.! 



SHOOTING, 



[the woodcock. 



are attracted by a glare of light ; and many- 

 instances have occurred, at the Cromer and 

 Eddjstone lighthouses, of their falling victims 

 when dashing against the windows of these 

 structures. At the lighthouse upon the Hill 

 of Howth, the man who attended it on one 

 occasion, was surprised by a violent stroke 

 against the windows, which broke a pane of 

 plate-glass, more than three-eighths of an 

 inch thick. On examining the balcony which 

 surrounds the light, he found a woodcock, 

 which had flown against the window with such 

 violence as to break his bill, head, breast-bone, 

 and both wings. The man had often found 

 birds which had killed themselves by flying 

 against the glass, but had never before known 

 of a pane to be injured. 



"Woodcocks have been seen at their first 

 arrival, in considerable numbers, on the coast 

 of Sussex, in the church-yard, and even in the 

 streets of Kye ; but during the night, the 

 usual time of their flying, they have betaken 

 themselves to less dangerous and more natural 

 quarters. At their first visit for the season to 

 the coast, they are commonly poor in con- 

 dition, weakened and wasted through great ex- 

 ertion, and, likewise, sometimes scurfy, though 

 not so much so as before their return in the 

 spring. The taste of the flesh has also become 

 quite metamorphosed. On their arrival, this 

 is usually marked by insipidity of flavour ; 

 but when they have been a short time feeding 

 in the country, it greatly improves, both in 

 point of richness and delicacy. If a woodcock 

 is shot just before its departure, it bleeds 

 plentifully ; whereas, at the beginning of winter, 

 it yields hardly any blood at all. From this 

 circumstance it would seem, that in those 

 countries where they have their summer resi- 

 dence, they live on a difierent kind of food to 

 what they find here. Probably the luxuriant 

 and succulent aliment which they meet with 

 among ua, prepares them for breeding in those 

 countries to which they retire with the com- 

 panions of their choice. 



The time when the woodcock appears and 

 disappears in Sweden, agrees exactly with the 

 periods of their arrival in, and departure from, 

 our own island. Their autumnal and vernal 

 appearance on the coast of Suffolk have been 

 accurately noticed. They come over sparingly 

 in the first week of October, the greater num- 

 558 



bers not arriving till November and December, 

 and always after sunset. It is the wind, and 

 not the moon, which determines the time of 

 their arrival ; and it is probable that this should 

 be the case, as they come hither in quest of 

 food, which fails them in the places they leave. 

 If the wind has been favourable for their flight, 

 and if they remain at all on the coast where 

 they alight, it is but for a very short time ; but 

 if they have been forced to struggle with an 

 adverse gale, they rest a day or two to recover 

 their strength. In such cases they have been 

 known to be so much exhausted, that they have 

 been taken up in South wold streets, nearly dead. 

 They do not come in flocks, but separately, and 

 disperse like so many feathered skirmishers 

 making their way through the fields of air. 



Prance, Germany, and Italy are treated 

 in the same manner as we are, w^heu the 

 proper season arrives. They visit Burgundy in 

 the latter end of October, but continue there 

 only four or five weeks ; it being a dry country, 

 obey are forced from it, for want of sustenance, 

 by the first frost. In the winter they are 

 found in great abundance as far south as 

 Smyrna and Aleppo. During the same season 

 they appear in vast quantities in Barbary, 

 where the Africans call them the " ass of the 

 partridge." It has been asserted that some 

 have been seen as far south as Egypt, which is 

 the remotest migration to which they can be 

 traced on that part of the African coast of the 

 Mediterranean ; on the other side of Asia they 

 are common in Japan. The woodcocks that re- 

 sort to the countries of the Levant, probably 

 come from the deserts of Siberia, or Tartary, 

 or the old mountains of Armenia. In the 

 neighbourhood of Athens, woodcocks abound, 

 descending, after snow on the mountains, into 

 the plains, and suddenly retiring if the 

 weather continues severe. They enter the 

 gardens of the town in great distress, rather 

 than cross the sea, and are sometimes caught 

 with the hand. 



It is now fully ascertained that they occa- 

 sionally breed in this country, and even as far 

 north as the Orkney Islands ; but it is main- 

 tained that these birds are not nearly so plen- 

 tiful as they were half a century ago, amongst 

 us. Perhaps this may really be the case; 

 but the fact has been doubted. It is the com- 

 mon failing of some minds to exaggerate the 



