MIGRATION OF WOODCOCKS. 1 63 



cock being entirely different from the British spe- 

 cies. Having said thus much, we think some light 

 may he thrown upon this obscure subject, by exam- 

 ining the above facts, and comparing them with 

 some others, which are equally well-known, about 

 Woodcocks. 



In the first place, their lean, poor, and often 

 scurfy condition, is not owing to exhaustion from 

 length of flight; because, not only those which are 

 found on the eastern coast, are usually very weak 

 and reduced, but even those which are killed in 

 Norway, before the migration has taken place, are 

 found to be already in an emaciated state,, and in- 

 fested with vermin. In a short time, however, after 

 frequenting their favourite haunts in our country, 

 they become fat and plump, and then, as the season 

 advances, they usually fall off, and the flesh of those 

 that have been accidentally met with in the Summer, 

 is found to be hard and dry. That their fatigue 

 may be the consequence of this previous debility, is 

 therefore not improbable; but it is not the cause. 

 We will next touch upon their first appearance on 

 our western instead of our eastern shores. It is a 

 generally prevailing opinion, that the state of the 

 moon has much to do with the arrival and departure 

 of Woodcocks; but more experienced naturalists 

 have remarked, that the wind, and not the moon, 

 determines the time of their arrival, which is usually 

 in misty weather, during northerly or easterly winds. 

 Supposing, then, that about dusk, and we know that 

 the migrations of Woodcocks usually, if not inva- 

 riably, take place at night, a flight of them starts 

 from Norway, with a sharp northerly or easterly 



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