6 SCOLOPACID^E. 



found throughout the winter in various localities to be 

 hereafter quoted. 



The Woodcock is a nocturnal bird, seeking its repose by 

 day, remaining quietly hid in the dry grassy bottoms of 

 brakes and woods, seldom or ever moving unless disturbed. 

 Sir Humphrey Davy in his Salmonia, says, " a laurel, or a 

 holly bush, is a favorite place for their repose : the thick 

 and varnished leaves of these trees prevent the radiation of 

 heat from the soil, and they are less affected by the refrige- 

 rating influence of a clear sky, so that they afford a warm 

 seat for the Woodcock." 



Towards night it sallies forth on silent wing, pursuing a 

 well-known track through the cover to its feeding-ground. 

 These tracks or open glades in woods, are sometimes called 

 cockshoots, and cockroads, and it is in these places that 

 nets were formerly suspended for their capture, but the 

 gun is now the more common means of obtaining them. A 

 few may still be caught with nooses of horse-hair, set up 

 about the springs or soft ground where the birds leave the 

 marks of the perforations, or borings made with their 

 beaks. The common earth-worms appear to be the food 

 most eagerly sought after. Two or three ornithologists 

 have borne testimony to the almost incredible quantity of 

 earth-worms which a single Woodcock, in confinement, 

 has been known to consume in one night ; and Daniel 

 has thus described their mode of feeding as observed in an 

 aviary at St. Ildephonso, in Spain. " There was a foun- 

 tain perpetually flowing to keep the ground moist, and 

 trees planted for the same purpose ; fresh sod was brought 

 to them, the richest in worms that could be found. In 

 vain did the worms seek concealment ; when the Woodcock 

 was hungry, it discovered them by the smell, stuck its beak 

 into the ground, but never higher than the nostrils, drew 



