W oopcock. GRALLATORES. SCOLOPAX. 111 
those districts where Woodcocks are abundant, by suspend- 
ing nets across the glades, or by the sides of hedges where 
they are observed to pass continually; and, though the 
adoption of the fowling-piece has in general superseded the 
modes of capture formerly practised, great numbers are still 
taken in this manner in Devonshire and Cornwall. Another 
method of entrapping Woodcocks (as well as Snipes) is by 
the springe, which is set in places where those perforations 
made by the bill of the Woodcock in search of food, and tech- 
nically called Boring, are observed to be most frequent. It 
is formed*of an elastic stick, of which one end is thrust into 
the ground, the other having affixed to it a noose made of 
horse-hair ; the stick bemg then bent down, this noose is 
passed through a hole in a peg fastened to the ground, and 
is kept properly expanded by means of a fine trigger, so set 
as to be displaced by the slight pressure of the bird’s foot. 
To conduct them to this trap, a low fence of twigs, or of 
stones placed so closely together as to leave no passage 
through the interstices, is extended to some distance on each 
side of the springe, and generally im an oblique direction ; 
over which obstacle, however trifling, it seems the birds never 
attempt to hop or fly, but keep moving along it, till they ap- 
proach the part occupied by the noose of the springe: upon 
attempting to pass through this apparently open space, they 
displace the trigger, and are almost invariably caught by the 
noose, and retained by the spring of the stick against the 
opposing peg.—Day being the Woodcock’s time for repose, 
it sits very close, and is not easily flushed; the sportsman 
then requiring the aid of the busy spaniel, or the bush, in 
which it is ensconced, to be actually beaten by an attend- 
ant, before it will take wing. It rises, however, with much 
quickness, and threads its way through the branches with 
great rapidity, until the underwood and trees are fairly 
cleared, when its flight becomes measured, and offers an easy 
aim to the sportsman. When roused, it seldom flies to any 
great distance, but alights in the first thicket that attracts 
Flight. 
