]()() 1UKTIIOD OF CATCH I. \<i WOODCOCKS. 



under former circumstances, might be inclined to 

 come over, namely, the groat decrease of our wood- 

 lands; the improvements in agriculture, by which 

 their haunts have been drained or broken up; and, 

 lastly, the increase of population, which, more than 

 we are aware of, deters shy and solitary birds 

 from remaining in neighbourhoods to which they 

 formerly resorted. It was a favourite amusement, 

 in former days to catch Woodcocks, by dozens, 

 of a night, in places where now not a dozen could 

 be taken in a whole season. Large 'openings were 

 left, or rather made, in woods, which, at night, 

 were filled up with wide-spreading nets, fastened by 

 pulleys to tall branches; a man stood concealed, on 

 one side, with a rope running through the pulleys, 

 who, the instant he felt a cock touch the net, let it go, 

 and, the net falling over the bird, secured the pri/e. 

 In the fine old beech-wood which we have already 

 more than once alluded to, numbers were formerly 

 taken, in a wide space, still known by the name of 

 the Woodcock-glade, where many a Winter's night 

 might now be spent uirprolitably, and possibly with- 

 out meeting with a single bird. Another mode of 

 catching them was by springes, a sort of trap, 

 formed of an elastic stick, to which was fastened a 

 horse-hair noose, put through a hole in a peg, fas- 

 tened into the ground, to which a trigger was 

 annexed ; and, in order to induce the Woodcock 

 to walk towards the noose, a little fence was ex- 

 tended on each side, by small sticks, set up close 

 enough to prevent the bird passing between: these 

 all met at the trap ; so that, by this funnel-shaped 

 fence, the Woodcock, in feeding, is compelled to 



