162 MIGRATION OF WOODCOCKS. 



Sweden. Secondly, that on re-appearing in England, 

 in October, they are, for the most part, poor and 

 weak. Thirdly, that instead of being first seen on 

 the eastern coasts, they are, for the most part, 

 known to land on the western shores of Ireland, 

 and, almost in flocks, on the Scilly Islands, twenty 

 miles to the westward of the Land's-End, Cornwall, 

 quite exhausted. 



Now, on the supposition that the major part 

 are bred in Norway and Sweden, if we examine 

 a map, it will be evident that they ought naturally 

 to alight on the eastern shores, as the nearest 

 points. Their weak, lean, and exhausted state, 

 however, supposing it to arise from fatigue, implies 

 a far longer, and more continued flight, than that 

 from Norway, which, even supposing that they 

 prefer, for some unknown cause, the western to 

 the eastern shores of our island for their first 

 appearance, is quite a trifling affair for most birds; 

 the distance, in a straight line, from the nearest 

 point of Norway to the Land's-End, being not 

 more than a seven or eight hours' journey for a 

 bird, whose rapidity of flight, when once fairly on 

 the wing, is exceeded by few, if any, of the feathered 

 race. It is obvious that so short a space of time is 

 by no means sufficient to occasion fatigue, and, still 

 less, to lower the bodily condition, so as to affect 

 the health of the bird. 



But some may be ready to say, How know we that 

 their flight is short? if they land on the west coasts, 

 may they not have crossed the wide Atlantic, and 

 taken their departure from America? The answer 

 is decisive of the contrary, the American Wood- 



