HAUNTS AXD HABITS OF THE WOODCOCK. G7 



much reduced as not to be worth shooting. It is curious to 

 observe how few days of very hard weather reduce a wood- 

 cock to something very much like a skeleton; and also how 

 few days of open weather restore him to excellent condition. 

 A woodcock feeds in an extraordinary manner; he seems 

 never to be at rest for a second of time, running very fast, 

 and poking his beak into the ground with a degree of 

 rapidity almost inconceivable. I don't know what they 

 feed upon, but think their natural food consists of small 

 worms and insects. In very hard weather, however, he will 

 poke his beak into almost any soft substance. A few years 

 ago, during a severe frost, my cook went out one forenoon 

 to the meat-larder, which is at a distance of about fifty 

 yards from the house, for a roast of beef, to be prepared for 

 dinner; having cut what she required, in the hurry of the 

 moment she left the remainder on a block of wood which is 

 by the larder, returning to the house ; in about three 

 minutes she paid a second visit to the larder for the purpose 

 of cutting a steak, when the beef had disappeared and was 

 not to be found. It appears that the shepherd was passing 

 by with his dog, which ran off with the beef. Missing his 

 dog, the man called and whistled, upon which the dog 

 dropped the beef and returned to him. Late in the after- 

 noon a sportsman who was staying with us, on returning 

 home from shooting, stepped over a low wall enclosing a 

 small plantation close to this house, when three woodcocks 

 rose almost from under his feet. He shot at two and killed 

 one; at his feet he found the missing piece of beef, and 

 brought it home, completely perforated by the woodcocks' 

 beaks. I had in the morning beaten the plantation, of 

 scarcely an acre in extent, very carefully ; found four cocks 

 in it, and killed three of them two of the three which he 

 saw must have come from adjacent plantations in search of 

 food. It has often occurred to me that there exists much 

 less sympathy between woodcocks than between any other 

 birds I have shot. In most other game birds I have ob- 

 served that they generally, when flushed, pursue nearly the 

 same course, and if one of two or more be w r ourided, the 

 other, or others, very often sympathize so much with their 

 comrade as to light near the spot where he, from exhaustion, 



