208 ORALLY. 



The young quit the nest immediately, at which, time they are 

 covered with down of a greyish brown colour ; and their 

 first plumage, which they acquire rather rapidly, is darker 

 than that of the old birds. Their bills are at first short, and 

 do not gain their full length till two or three months, or 

 their full consistency till the following spring. The female 

 is seldom seen during the incubation. Indeed, both the 

 birds are so close during the heat of the day, that one may 

 walk about for hours, in places where they are abundant, 

 without seeing one ; and even if seen they do not readily 

 rise (orflusl), but skulk among the herbage, rather quickly, 

 but at the same time so stealthily, and with so many devi- 

 ations from the straight line, that they are soon lost sight 

 of. A snipe gliding through the aquatic plants, alternately 

 hidden and half displayed, is a very pretty sight. Unless 

 during the breeding season, snipes are constantly changing 

 their ground, and appear to have considerable labour in the 

 finding of food ; but the probability is, that it is the effect 

 of the weather upon their food, and not upon the birds 

 themselves, which is the cause of their shifting. 



Snipes, though retiring birds, have not the solitary habits 

 of the bittern ; and though cultivation has made them change 

 their localities in the breeding season, it is doubtful whether 

 it has diminished their numbers, especially in the winter, 

 as the enriching of the soil tends both to augment the 

 quantity of their food and to render it more accessible, and 

 I have seen them nestle within a few hundred yards of a 

 farm-house, in a situation not very elevated, or far from 

 the sea-coast. 



THE WOODCOCK (ScolopaX TUSticola). 



The woodcock is perhaps the species most prized for the 

 table, partly no doubt on account of its superior size and 

 weight, and partly on account of the sport which the shoot- 



