344 FLIGHT OF WOODCOCKS. 



most respectable authority. A Cornish gentleman, sailing at 

 ' a distance from land unusual for birds to be seen, discerned a 

 bird high in the air, which, gradually descending, alighted on 

 the deck, and proved to be a Woodcock. During a heavy 

 gale, two others sought shelter on board a line-of-battle ship 

 cruising in the Channel ; and a naval officer informed us, that 

 after a stormy night, several leagues to the westward of the 

 Land's-End, when shaking the reefs out of the topsails, early 

 in the morning, several Woodcocks were discovered in the 

 rigging. With these premises before us, we think the mys- 

 tery is, if not entirely removed, at least much lessened, and a 

 first landing on the western shores of Ireland, and the Scilly 

 Islands, fairly and easily accounted for ; the birds, naturally, 

 as day approached, sinking downward to the nearest land. 



That their flight, -too, is rapid to the last, is farther proved 

 by many instances having occurred of their killing themselves 

 by flying against the glass of the Eddystone Light-house. 

 Of their speed, indeed, some estimation may be formed, by 

 one which struck against the plate-glass of a light-house, on 

 the coast of Ireland, and broke a pane cast for the place, of 



unusual strength, viz., from A to B ( ?), being more 



than three-eighths of an inch thick ; the blow was so 

 violent, that in addition to the glass being broken, the bird 

 was found dead, with its breast-bone, and both wings also, 

 smashed. Again, no less than five Woodcocks have killed 

 themselves, in a similar manner, against the plate-glasses of 

 the South-Stack Light-house, in Anglesey. 



There was a time when Woodcocks might be almost said 

 to be as plentiful as Wood-Pigeons are now ; at least, they 

 abounded to such a degree, that catching them was a regular 

 trade : and so late as fifty years ago, they were sold at the 

 moderate rate of from six to seven-pence a couple ; but, like 

 Starlings, Wood-Pigeons, and several other birds, they have 

 of late years diminished in numbers. 



As far as concerns Woodcocks, this, indeed, may easily be 

 accounted for. In the first place, the demand, not for the 

 full-grown birds merely, but for the eggs, has greatly increased 

 in Sweden, where they are as highly esteemed, and therefore 



