MARSH BIRDS. 77 



What joy would there f be in Cornwall and Devonshire 

 were such a flight as the above to grace their holly thickets 

 and spruce plantations ! But I fear we must wait for that 

 fortunate breeze at the flitting season the writer suggests 

 as regulating the cocks' movements. I have wandered rather 

 far away, and possibly the woodcock of Smyrna, or the long- 

 bills that teem in Caspian swamps are of little interest to 

 home sportsmen. It cannot be denied that, as far as cock 

 are concerned, there has been a lamentable falling off in the 

 number of these birds to be obtained in our home shires 

 a decrease more marked indeed than that of snipe, though 

 the improvement of land would on the face of it have been 

 supposed to most affect the latter bird. 



It is difficult to say why this is, though there are some 

 causes which may be pointed to with certainty as having 

 contributed to this undesirable end. 



To begin with, the woodcock is a very shy bird, shy cer- 

 tainly in disposition if not in habitat. During the hours of 

 moonlight and in open weather, like most of their kind, they 

 are active and feeding in the open. Thus they have some- 

 times been taken in the poachers' drag nets when sweeping 

 stubbles for partridges. You will find the woodcock during 

 the day sitting under a clump of bushes or trees quite dry. 

 If you examine the place where the bird gets up, you will see 

 by the droppings it has kept its place after going to covert 

 for the day, just as a hare keeps her seat until disturbed. 

 They suffer a near approach the first time they rise, and 

 should they escape being killed seldom afford another shot, 

 unless a second person contrives to drive them to the gun, in 

 which respect also they resemble hares, and it would not be 

 difficult to imagine that the country where civilization is most 

 oppressive to free spirits, and their midday repose is most 

 often broken, would earn a bad name amongst them. 



But more prominently than this cause of scarcity may be 

 placed some others, the greater deadliness of modern arms of 

 precision, the far greater number who use them, and lastly 



