WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 405 



mer haunts, the Norwegian woods or marshes. 

 Their movements are very uncertain, as are those 

 of snipes, their arrival and disappearance being 

 sometimes equally sudden. Changes of the weather 

 and the moon influence their movements. 



There is a proverb current among sportsmen, 

 that to kill a woodcock is to perform a day's work, 

 which doubtlessly originated in the circumstance 

 of a woodcock being seldom found until a very 

 large extent of wood has been closely beaten. In 

 the month of November, however, when wood- 

 cocks are mos.t abundant, it would not be a diffi- 

 cult task, according to that standard of labour, to 

 do the work of a week in a day, in any noted 

 cover, for every cover frequented by cocks acquires 

 a notoriety which it seldom loses, since any wood 

 well frequented with cocks one year, has generally 

 a fair supply the next. But whether the same 

 cocks that frequent a wood this year, return the 

 next, with their offspring, or whether an entirely 

 new set of occupants take possession, we leave the 

 ornithologist to decide. A certain description of 

 woods are seldom known to fail of woodcocks dur- 

 ing the winter months ; these woods or plantations 

 are such as are swampy, or have a stream of water 

 running through them, or woods abounding in 

 springs, or where, from the nature of the ground, 

 or want of draining, the top water encourages the 

 growth of moss. The woodcock is rarely found in 

 woods where moss is not abundant. During a 

 frost, cocks are found near fresh water springs ; at 

 other times, they are most commonly flushed in 



