168 WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 



us, of late seasons, is on the decline. In Ireland they 

 are very abundant, the boggy districts and natural 

 copse-woods, of certain of its counties, absolutely 

 swarming with them. There is much animal oil in 

 woodcocks ; and their time of incubation is short : the 

 young birds run alone as soon as out of the shell . It is 

 said, that, in common with their tribe, they are quarrel- 

 some during the season of courtship. Blaine men- 

 tions, that the sex of the woodcock is undiscoverable 

 from external marks ; although in Pennant we find, 

 that the hen of the woodcock " presents a narrow 

 stripe of white along the lower part of the exterior 

 veil of the feather, while in the cock bird, the same 

 feather at the same part is beautifully and regularly 

 spotted with black and reddish- white." We are not 

 ourself a competent judge, not having a taste in 

 feathers, but have no doubt that Blaine is right in 

 his experience, that the distinction is not, in many 

 birds, clearly marked. Some say the hen is the 

 larger bird. The small, pointed feather, at the base 

 of the bastard wing of this bird, is well known among 

 artists as the most delicate brush used by them, 

 especially in miniature painting. It is now greatly 

 superseded by brushes almost as finely haired, manu- 

 factured by the brushmakers. The woodcock, on its 

 first arrival, is usually lean and fatigued : it is often 

 picked up, under such circumstances, in the most 

 open thoroughfares near sea-coasts, and is so difficult 

 to raise, at such times, that it is killed in numbers. 

 Mr. Daniel tells us " that when the cocks first take 



