OLD RECOLLECTIONS 283 



were often to be cheaply bought at the sales 

 of well-to-do residents in our rambling fishing 

 village. Old books, furniture, and engravings 

 were not routed out so eagerly by town agents 

 as they now are. If I had some of that old 

 stuff by me that we once saved from various 

 wreckage, I should be rich in a sense. All 

 that I now own is a treatise on Falconry, date 

 1633 ; some old engravings and etchings, and 

 a wonderful article on the Woodcock by "a 

 Woodcock Shooter." No name or initials 

 give any idea of the standing of the author, 

 but every line tells of minute observations of 

 the bird in its own haunts, before drain-pipes 

 killed off fowl. 



That pamphlet is before me now, its leaves 

 dog-eared and yellow with age, written, as it 

 was, before I was born ; and I have to con- 

 fess that, with all my own personal observa- 

 tions, made for many years in localities most 

 suited to the woodcock's well-being, I have 

 not been able to lay one fresh fact before the 

 public concerning that wide-awake, full- eyed 

 bird. 



The nesting haunts of some of our species 

 are difficult to explore even under the most 

 favourable circumstances, and some of them 



