142 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



I was at that time impressed with the erroneous 

 belief, shared by many even at the present day, 

 that as ' a bird of suction ' it required no sub- 

 stantial food for its maintenance : but ' experientia 

 docet.' I afterwards succeeded in rearing a young 

 woodcock by feeding him plentifully with earth- 

 worms the species called brandlings, which 

 abound in old heaps of compost, were the best 

 these, when mixed with wet mould, he devoured 

 greedily ; and I found no small difficulty in 

 furnishing him with a sufficient quantity, while 

 I varied his diet occasionally with gentles, tad- 

 poles, and the larvae of aquatic insects. He 

 became quite tame and reconciled to his place 

 of captivity, which was an outhouse, the door 

 of which had been removed and replaced by a 

 fragment of an old fishing net. Like all pets, 

 however, he met with an untimely fate. An 

 inquisitive spaniel managed to creep under the 

 net one afternoon, and although a speedy rescue 

 was attempted, it was too late ; his career was 

 ended. Being in excellent condition he was 

 handed over to the cook, and a better bird never 

 appeared upon a table. So rapid was his diges- 

 tion, that the stomach was perfectly empty, and 

 the other viscera, or ' trail,' contained only the 

 peculiar cream-like matter usually found in the 

 woodcock, while its flavour was positively irre- 



