THE CRANE KIND. 



191 



deserve regard. All these birds are bare of 

 feathers above the knee, or above the heel, as 

 some naturalists choose to express it. In fact, 

 that part which I call the knee, if compared 



The Woodcock. During the summer time the wood- 

 cock is an inhabitant of Norway, Sweden, Lapland, and 



other northern countries, where it breeds. As soon, 

 however, as the frosts commence, it retires southward 

 to milder climates. These birds arrive in Great 

 Britain in flocks ; some of them in October, but not in 

 great numbers till November and December. . They 

 generally take advantage of the night, being seldom 

 seen to come before sun-set. The time of their arrival 

 depends considerably on the prevailing winds ; for 

 adverse gales always detain them, they not being able 

 to struggle with the boisterous squalls of the Northern 

 ocean. After their arrival in bad weather, they have often 

 been seen so much exhausted as to allow themselves to 

 be taken by the hand, when they alighted near the coast. 

 They live on worms and insects, which they search for 

 with their long bills in soft ground and moist woods, 

 feeding and flying principally in the night. They go 

 out in the evening; and generally return in the same 

 direction, through the same glades, to their day-retreat. 

 The greater part of them leave this country about the 

 latter end of February, or the beginning of March, 

 always pairing before they set out. They retire to the 

 coast, and, if the wind be fair, set out immediately ; but 

 if contrary, they are often detained in the neighbouring 

 woods and thickets for some time. In this crisis the 

 sportsmen are all on the alert, and the whole surround- 

 ing country echoes to the discharge of guns ; seventeen 

 brace have been killed by one person in a day. But if 

 they are detained long on the dry heaths, they become 

 so lean as to be scarcely eatable. The instant a fail- 

 wind springs up, they seize the opportunity; and where 

 the sportsman has seen hundreds in one day, he will not 

 find even a single bird the next. Very few of them 

 breed in England; and perhaps with respect to those 

 that do, it may be owing to their having been wounded 

 by the sportsman in the winter, so as to be disabled from 

 taking their long journey in the spring. They build 

 their nests on the ground, generally at the root of some 

 tree, and lay four or five eggs about the size of those of 

 a pigeon, of a rusty colour, and marked with brown spots. 

 They are remarkably tame during incubation. A person 

 who discovered a woodcock on its nest, often stood 

 over, and even stroked it; notwithstanding it hatched 

 the young ones, and in due time, disappeared with 

 then:. 



The Snipes, though agreeing very much in external 

 resemblance with the woodcocks, differ from them in 

 natural habits. They do not inhabit woods, but remain 

 in the marshy parts of meadows, in the herbage, and 

 amongst the osiers which are on the banks of rivers. 

 They are still more generally spread than the woodcocks, 

 and there are no portions of the globe in which some of 

 them have not been found. They are observed to be 

 incessantly employed in picking the ground, and Aldro- 

 vandus has remarked that they have the tongue termin- 



vvith the legs of mankind, is analogous to the 

 heel ; but as it is commonly conceived other- 

 wise, I have conformed to the general ap- 

 prehension. I say, therefore, that all these 



ating in a sharp point, proper for piercing the small 

 worms, which, probably, constitute their food ; for 

 though nothing is found in their stomachs but liquid, 

 and an earthy sediment, it must be that such soft bodies 

 as worms, &c. dissolve there very quickly, and that the 

 earth which enters along with them, is the only sub- 

 stance unsusceptible of liquefaction. Autumn is the 

 season for the arrival of the common snipe in most 

 of the southern and western countries of Europe. It 

 then extends through meadows, marshes, bogs, and 

 along the banks of streams and rivers. When it walks, 

 it carries the head erect, without either__hopping or flut- 

 tering, and gives it a horizontal movement, while the 

 tail moves up and down. When it takes flight, it rises 

 so high as often to be heard after it is lost sight of. Its 

 cry has been sometimes likened to that of the she-goat. 

 The snipes for the most part, migrating northwards, in 

 the spring, nestle in Germany, Switzerland, Silesia, &c. 

 Some, however, continue in their more southern stations, 

 making their nest in the month of June, under the root 

 of some alder or willow, in a sheltered place. This 

 nest is composed of dry plants and feathers, and the fe- 

 male lays four or five oblong eggs, of a whitish tint, 

 spotted with red. If the female be disturbed during in- 

 cubation, she rises very high, and in a right line, then 

 utters a particular cry, and re- descends with great ra- 

 pidity. While the female is hatching, the male is fre- 

 quently observed to hover around her, uttering a kind 

 of hissing noise. The young quit the nest on issuing 

 from the shell, and then appear very ugly and deformed. 

 Until their bill grows firm, the mother continues her 

 care of them, and does not leave them until they can do 

 without her. The snipe usually grows very fat, both 

 in Europe and North America ; but much less so in 

 warm climates. Its flesh, after the early frosts, acquires 

 a fine and delicate flavour. It is cooked, as well as the 

 woodcock, without being drawn, and is in universal esti- 

 mation as an exquisite game. It is caught in various 

 ways, and is well known to be a difficult shot, when 

 turned and winding in the air ; though by no means 

 so when suffered to proceed in a right line, especially as 

 the smallest grain of lead is sufficient to bring it down, 

 and the slightest touch will make it fall. 



The Double Snipe was considered by Buffbn as a 

 mere variety of the common, as that naturalist proba- 

 bly took into consideration only its superior size, and the 

 trifling difference of the plumage. It has, however, 

 since his time, been ascertained to be a different species. 

 It differs from the common snipe in its cry, in its flight, 

 which is generally direct, and with few or no circlings, 

 and in its habits, preferring to marshy and muddy 

 grounds, those places where there is but little water, 

 and where it is clear. There is little else worth re- 

 marking concerning it. 



The Little Snipe is not larger than a lark. It is less 

 generally extended than the common species. In France, 

 it remains in the marshes almost during the whole year, 

 where it nestles and lays eggs, like those of the common 

 snipe. Concealed in reeds and rushes, it remains there 

 so pertinaciously that it is necessary almost to walk upon 

 it to make it rise. Its flight is less rapid and more 

 direct than that of the common snipe. Its fat is equally 

 fine, and its flesh similarly well-flavoured. It is not 

 very common in this country. For Variegated Snipe, 

 see Plate XIX. fig. 18. ; for JFiUon's Snipe, see 

 fig. 19. 



There is a number of other species of woodcock and 

 snipe, but there is nothing in their habits to induce us 

 to exceed the limits to which we are necessarily pro- 



