COURSING, EXC. 275 



but are rather a foolish bird, as they will 

 run before you on the bare ground like 

 chickens, so that the shooter may kill one 

 half of the pack on the ground at one shot. 

 The tarmigan weighs from fifteen to seven- 

 teen ounces. 



THE WOODCOCK, 



Is a bird of passage, and commonly ar- 

 rives in this country about the latter end of 

 October. The passage in different seasons,. 

 is more or less advanced or retarded, ac- 

 cording as the wind and weather happens to 

 be at the beginning of the autumn : the east 

 and north-east winds, and especially when 

 they are accompanied with fogs, bring them 

 over in the greatest numbers. At their ar- 

 rival on the first flight they drop any where, 

 as well under high trees as in copses, in 

 hedge-rows, or among heath and brambles ; 

 afterwards they take up their abode in copses 

 of nine or ten years' growth, and sometimes 

 in those little rows, which having been cut, 



