DIGESTION OF THE WOODCOCK, 141 



but without taking the precaution of screening 

 it from observation. On visiting the spot next 

 morning I found that my first essay had been 

 unsuccessful: and a short examination sufficed 

 to show the cause. There were traces of at 

 least one or two woodcocks close to the trap ; 

 but instead of attempting to pass through it, 

 they had inclined a little out of the direct line, 

 and, apparently without evincing any other symp- 

 tom of alarm, had, after passing the obstacle, 

 resumed their course through the swamp. I 

 now placed a few boughs on both sides so as to 

 prevent a recurrence of this mishap, but not 

 without sundry misgivings that my rude fence 

 might cause the birds to take flight, and perhaps 

 scare them from their feeding places. My appre- 

 hensions, however, were groundless, for on the 

 following morning I found a woodcock safely 

 incarcerated, which, as a faithful chronicler of 

 facts, I am bound to confess soon died under my 

 fostering care ; partly, perhaps, because it was 

 an old bird, and obstinately refused to insert its 

 bill into the most tempting dishes of soft mud 

 with which I liberally supplied it taken more- 

 over from the very spot on which it had seemed 

 to luxuriate in a state of nature but princi- 

 pally, I believe, from my ignorance of its proper 

 food and the insatiableness of its appetite ; for 



