]58 WOODCOCKS AND SNIPES. 



transparent, and thus showing the blood they had 

 swallowed. 



In some parts of France, where Plovers fly in 

 large flocks, they are decoyed into nets spread on 

 the ground, by the playing of a looking-glass, which 

 attracts their notice, with the addition of some 

 stuffed -birds, and here and there a live one inter- 

 mixed. In another part, they are hunted at night 

 with torches, the light of which attracts them. 



Woodcocks and Snipes are too well known to 

 require description, as far as their outward appear- 

 ance is concerned. But, in their habits, and more 

 particularly in the migrations of the former, there is 

 much to excite our curiosity. With few exceptions, 

 other birds manifest a fondness for each other's 

 society, and even if they do not fly in flocks, may be 

 found associating together, as if they disliked a 

 lonely, solitary life. Not so the Woodcock and the 

 Snipe ; for they, except at the breeding-season, 

 seem to shun, not only other birds, but even their 

 own species. It may be said, that this is incor- 

 rect, because, often in the same woods, or favourite 

 marshy haunts, they may be occasionally put up in 

 considerable numbers; but, in these cases, it should 

 be remembered, that if many are found, the number 

 depends, not upon any social feeling, but the attrac- 

 tion of their common food; a large proportion of 

 their lives being passed alone in the solitude of a 

 marsh, or the shaded retirement of a wood. If un- 

 disturbed, and in some cases, even although dis- 

 turbed, there will the Woodcock or the Snipe re- 

 main, till called away by that instinctive faculty 

 which impels them to visit regions far distant, and 



