CHAPTER XVI. 



WOODCOCK AND SNIPE. 



THESE woodcocks are undoubtedly migratory, pass- 

 ing the winter in the genial South and the summer in 

 the North ; they are also nocturnal, doing all their 

 travelling by night. From the peculiar formation of 

 the eye, their sight is much better after the sun has 

 declined. Strong light is their detestation, for, 

 judging from their conduct when flushed in the noon- 

 day glare, their optics are then of little use, hence the 

 idea that is so frequently current that this bird is 

 stupid. Such is not the case, but quite the reverse, 

 experience having taught me that they are as capable 

 as any other of availing themselves of artifices and 

 hiding-places that are likely to throw out the dog, or 

 shelter them from molestation. This bird, although 

 undoubtedly of the same family, must not be con- 

 founded with the European, which is coloured dif- 

 ferently in plumage and much larger in size. The 

 woodcock killed in England generally measure about 

 14J inches in length, and weigh from 14 to 17 ozs., 

 although one is reported to have been killed at 

 Narborough, of the enormous weight of 27 ozs. I do 

 not here give all the minutiaB of the English bird, for 

 it is not of it that I wish to speak, but only sufficiently 

 to show that there is a marked difference between 

 it and its namesake of the American continent, whose 



