164 MIGRATION OF WOODCOCKS. 



wind helping them, in adding to the natural velocity 

 of their own most rapid flight, which has been esti- 

 mated at one hundred and fifty miles per hour, 

 high up in the air, as we moreover know, they fly, 

 the land helow them, when they had crossed the 

 Channel, would be invisible, and, borne upon the 

 breeze, by the time they had continued their flight 

 till early dawn, where would they be? Look 

 to the map, and we shall find them, after their 

 flight, at the rate of one hundred and twenty, or 

 one hundred and fifty, miles per hour, far away to 

 the westward of Ireland, hovering over the Atlantic, 

 steering for America; and that they are found at 

 sea, we learn from the most respectable authority. 

 A Cornish gentleman, sailing at a distance from 

 land unusual for birds to be seen, discerned a bird 

 high in the air, which, gradually descending, alighted 

 on the deck, and proved to be a Woodcock. During 

 a heavy gale, two others sought shelter on board a 

 line-of-battle ship, cruizing in the Channel; and a 

 naval officer informed us, that after a stormy night, 

 several leagues to the westward of the Land's-End. 

 when shaking the reefs out of the topsails, early in 

 the morning, several Woodcocks were discovered in 

 the rigging. With these premises before us, we 

 think the mystery is, if not entirely removed, at 

 least much lessened, and a first landing on the 

 western shores of Ireland, and the Scilly Islands, 

 fairly and easily accounted for; the birds naturally, 

 as day approached, sinking downwards to the nearest 

 land. 



That their flight, too, is rapid to the last, is further 

 proved, by many instances having occurred, of their 



